--- a/src/main/java/org/monetdb/jdbc/MonetConnection.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/monetdb/jdbc/MonetConnection.java
@@ -3225,7 +3225,9 @@ public class MonetConnection
 		} else if (transferCommand.startsWith("rb ")) {
 			return handleUpload(transferCommand.substring(3), false, 0);
 		} else if (transferCommand.startsWith("w ")) {
-			return handleDownload(transferCommand.substring(2));
+			return handleDownload(transferCommand.substring(2), true);
+		} else if (transferCommand.startsWith("wb ")) {
+			return handleDownload(transferCommand.substring(2), false);
 		}
 		return "JDBC does not support this file transfer yet: " + transferCommand;
 	}
@@ -3250,12 +3252,12 @@ public class MonetConnection
 		return handle.getError();
 	}
 
-	private String handleDownload(final String path) throws IOException {
+	private String handleDownload(final String path, boolean textMode) throws IOException {
 		if (downloadHandler == null) {
 			return "No file download handler has been registered with the JDBC driver";
 		}
 
-		final Download handle = new Download(server);
+		final Download handle = new Download(server, textMode);
 		try {
 			downloadHandler.handleDownload(handle, path, true);
 			if (!handle.hasBeenUsed()) {
@@ -3467,11 +3469,16 @@ public class MonetConnection
 	 */
 	public static class Download {
 		private final MapiSocket server;
+		private boolean prependCr;
 		private MapiSocket.DownloadStream stream = null;
 		private String error = null;
 
-		Download(MapiSocket server) {
+		Download(MapiSocket server, boolean textMode) {
 			this.server = server;
+			prependCr = false;
+			if (textMode) {
+				setLineSeparator(System.lineSeparator());
+			}
 		}
 
 		/**
@@ -3497,14 +3504,16 @@ public class MonetConnection
 		/**
 		 * Get an {@link InputStream} to read data from.
 		 *
-		 * Textual data is UTF-8 encoded.
+		 * Textual data is UTF-8 encoded. If the download is in text mode, line endings
+		 * are converted according to {@link java.lang.System#lineSeparator()}.
+		 * This can be overridden with {@link Download#setLineSeparator(String)}.
 		 */
 		public InputStream getStream() throws IOException {
 			if (error != null) {
 				throw new IOException("cannot receive data after error has been sent");
 			}
 			if (stream == null) {
-				stream = server.downloadStream();
+				stream = server.downloadStream(prependCr);
 				server.getOutputStream().flush();
 			}
 			return stream;
@@ -3568,6 +3577,21 @@ public class MonetConnection
 				}
 			}
 		}
+
+		/**
+		 * Set the line endings used in the stream returned by {@link Download#getStream()}
+		 * @param sep separator to use
+		 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if sep is neither "\n" nor "\r\n"
+		 */
+		public void setLineSeparator(String sep) {
+			if ("\n".equals(sep)) {
+				prependCr = false;
+			} else if ("\r\n".equals(sep)) {
+				prependCr = true;
+			} else {
+				throw new IllegalArgumentException("sep must be \n or \r\n");
+			}
+		}
 	}
 
 	public static class StripCrLfStream extends FilterOutputStream {

--- a/src/main/java/org/monetdb/mcl/net/MapiSocket.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/monetdb/mcl/net/MapiSocket.java
@@ -1198,9 +1198,10 @@ public class MapiSocket {	/* cannot (yet
 	 * Return a DownloadStream for use with for example COPY INTO filename ON CLIENT
 	 *
 	 * Building block for {@link org.monetdb.jdbc.MonetConnection.DownloadHandler}.
+	 * @param prependCr convert \n to \r\n
 	 */
-	public DownloadStream downloadStream() {
-		return new DownloadStream(fromMonet.getRaw(), toMonet);
+	public DownloadStream downloadStream(boolean prependCr) {
+		return new DownloadStream(fromMonet.getRaw(), toMonet, prependCr);
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -1379,12 +1380,15 @@ public class MapiSocket {	/* cannot (yet
 	public static class DownloadStream extends InputStream {
 		private final BlockInputStream.Raw rawIn;
 		private final OutputStream out;
+		private final boolean prependCr;
 		private boolean endBlockSeen = false;
 		private boolean closed = false;
+		private boolean newlinePending = false; // used for crlf conversion
 
-		DownloadStream(BlockInputStream.Raw rawIn, OutputStream out) {
+		DownloadStream(BlockInputStream.Raw rawIn, OutputStream out, boolean prependCr) {
 			this.rawIn = rawIn;
 			this.out = out;
+			this.prependCr = prependCr;
 		}
 
 		void nextBlock() throws IOException {
@@ -1422,23 +1426,55 @@ public class MapiSocket {	/* cannot (yet
 		}
 
 		@Override
-		public int read(final byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
+		public int read(final byte[] dest, int off, int len) throws IOException {
 			final int origOff = off;
-			while (len > 0) {
-				int chunk = Integer.min(len, rawIn.getLength() - rawIn.getPosition());
-				if (chunk > 0) {
-					// make progress copying some bytes
-					System.arraycopy(rawIn.getBytes(), rawIn.getPosition(), b, off, chunk);
-					off += chunk;
-					rawIn.consume(chunk);
-					len -= chunk;
-				} else {
-					// make progress fetching data
+			int end = off + len;
+
+			while (off < end) {
+				// minimum of what's requested and what we have in stock
+				int chunk = Integer.min(end - off, rawIn.getLength() - rawIn.getPosition());
+				assert chunk >= 0;
+				if (chunk == 0) {
+					// make progress by fetching more data
 					if (endBlockSeen)
 						break;
 					nextBlock();
+					continue;
+				}
+				// make progress copying some bytes
+				if (!prependCr) {
+					// no conversion needed, use arraycopy
+					System.arraycopy(rawIn.getBytes(), rawIn.getPosition(), dest, off, chunk);
+					off += chunk;
+					rawIn.consume(chunk);
+				} else {
+					int chunkEnd = off + chunk;
+					if (newlinePending && off < chunkEnd) {
+						// we were in the middle of a line ending conversion
+						dest[off++] = '\n';
+						newlinePending = false;
+					}
+					while (off < chunkEnd) {
+						byte b = rawIn.getBytes()[rawIn.consume(1)];
+						if (b != '\n') {
+							dest[off++] = b;
+						} else if (chunkEnd - off >= 2) {
+							dest[off++] = '\r';
+							dest[off++] = '\n';
+						} else {
+							dest[off++] = '\r';
+							newlinePending = true;
+							break;
+						}
+					}
 				}
 			}
+
+			if (off < end && newlinePending) {
+				dest[off++] = '\n';
+				newlinePending = false;
+			}
+
 			if (off == origOff && endBlockSeen)
 				return -1;
 			else

--- a/tests/OnClientTester.java
+++ b/tests/OnClientTester.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import java.sql.Statement;
 import java.sql.SQLException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Random;
 import java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream;
 
 import static java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption.CREATE_NEW;
@@ -147,6 +148,8 @@ public final class OnClientTester {
 				test_LargeUpload();
 			if (isSelected("LargeDownload"))
 				test_LargeDownload();
+			if (isSelected("DownloadCrLf"))
+				test_DownloadCrLf();
 			if (isSelected("UploadFromStream"))
 				test_UploadFromStream();
 			if (isSelected("UploadFromReader"))
@@ -602,6 +605,61 @@ public final class OnClientTester {
 		exitTest();
 	}
 
+	private void test_DownloadCrLf() throws SQLException, Failure, IOException {
+
+		// This tests forces line ending conversion and reads in small batches, hoping to trigger corner cases
+
+		initTest("test_DownloadCrLf");
+		prepare();
+		update("ALTER TABLE foo DROP COLUMN t");
+		update("ALTER TABLE foo ADD COLUMN j INT");
+		update("INSERT INTO foo SELECT rand() % CASE WHEN value % 10 = 0 THEN 1000 ELSE 10 END AS i, 0 AS j FROM generate_series(0, 500000)");
+		ByteArrayOutputStream target = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+		Random rng = new Random(42);
+		DownloadHandler handler = (handle, name, textMode) -> {
+			handle.setLineSeparator("\r\n");
+			InputStream s = handle.getStream();
+			byte[] buf = new byte[10];
+			boolean expectEof = false;
+			for (;;) {
+				int n = rng.nextInt(buf.length - 1) + 1;
+				int nread = s.read(buf, 0, n);
+				if (nread < 0) {
+					break;
+				}
+				target.write(buf, 0, nread);
+			}
+
+		};
+		conn.setDownloadHandler(handler);
+		update("COPY SELECT * FROM foo INTO 'banana' ON CLIENT");
+		// go to String instead of byte[] because Strings have handy replace methods.
+		String result = new String(target.toByteArray(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+
+		// It should contain only \r\n's, no lonely \r's or \n's.
+		String replaced = result.replaceAll("\r\n", "XX");
+
+		assertEq("Index of first lonely \\r", -1, replaced.indexOf('\r'));
+		assertEq("Index of first lonely \\n", -1, replaced.indexOf('\n'));
+
+		String withoutData = result.replaceAll("[0-9]", "");
+		Files.writeString(Path.of("/tmp/x.csv"), withoutData, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+		assertEq("Length after dropping data, modulo 3", 0, withoutData.length() % 3);
+		for (int i = 0; i < withoutData.length(); i += 3) {
+			String sub = withoutData.substring(i, i+3);
+			if (!sub.equals("|\r\n")) {
+				fail(String.format(
+						"At index %d out of %d in the skeleton (=digits removed) we find <%02x %02x %02x> instead of <7c 0d 0a>",
+						i, withoutData.length(),
+						(int)sub.charAt(0), (int)sub.charAt(1), (int)sub.charAt(2)));
+			}
+		}
+		// only to show some succesful output if the above succeeds
+		assertEq("Every 3-byte normalized chunk", "|\\r\\n", "|\\r\\n");
+
+		exitTest();
+	}
+
 	private void test_UploadFromStream() throws SQLException, Failure {
 		initTest("test_UploadFromStream");
 		prepare();
@@ -894,6 +952,11 @@ public final class OnClientTester {
 
 
 	/* utility methods */
+	private void say(String message) throws Failure {
+		outBuffer.append(message).append("\n");
+		throw new Failure(message);
+	}
+
 	private void fail(String message) throws Failure {
 		outBuffer.append("FAILURE: ").append(message).append("\n");
 		throw new Failure(message);