diff --git a/src/fmt/doc.go b/src/fmt/doc.go
index 2efe6ee5b490db..ef91368ef0849d 100644
--- a/src/fmt/doc.go
+++ b/src/fmt/doc.go
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
 		%F	synonym for %f
 		%g	%e for large exponents, %f otherwise
 		%G	%E for large exponents, %F otherwise
-	String and slice of bytes:
+	String and slice of bytes (treated equivalently with these verbs):
 		%s	the uninterpreted bytes of the string or slice
 		%q	a double-quoted string safely escaped with Go syntax
 		%x	base 16, lower-case, two characters per byte
@@ -164,6 +164,9 @@
 	of strings, and %6.2f will control formatting for each element
 	of a floating-point array.
 
+	However, when printing a byte slice with a string-like verb
+	(%s %q %x %X), it is treated identically to a string, as a single item.
+
 	To avoid recursion in cases such as
 		type X string
 		func (x X) String() string { return Sprintf("<%s>", x) }
diff --git a/src/fmt/fmt_test.go b/src/fmt/fmt_test.go
index 28b7e0551ac80e..90a4031d5bdafc 100644
--- a/src/fmt/fmt_test.go
+++ b/src/fmt/fmt_test.go
@@ -452,10 +452,30 @@ var fmtTests = []struct {
 	{"%q", []string{"a", "b"}, `["a" "b"]`},
 	{"% 02x", []byte{1}, "01"},
 	{"% 02x", []byte{1, 2, 3}, "01 02 03"},
-	// Special care for empty slices.
+	// Padding with byte slices.
 	{"%x", []byte{}, ""},
-	{"%02x", []byte{}, ""},
-	{"% 02x", []byte{}, ""},
+	{"%02x", []byte{}, "00"},
+	{"% 02x", []byte{}, "00"},
+	{"%08x", []byte{0xab}, "000000ab"},
+	{"% 08x", []byte{0xab}, "000000ab"},
+	{"%08x", []byte{0xab, 0xcd}, "0000abcd"},
+	{"% 08x", []byte{0xab, 0xcd}, "000ab cd"},
+	{"%8x", []byte{0xab}, "      ab"},
+	{"% 8x", []byte{0xab}, "      ab"},
+	{"%8x", []byte{0xab, 0xcd}, "    abcd"},
+	{"% 8x", []byte{0xab, 0xcd}, "   ab cd"},
+	// Same for strings
+	{"%x", "", ""},
+	{"%02x", "", "00"},
+	{"% 02x", "", "00"},
+	{"%08x", "\xab", "000000ab"},
+	{"% 08x", "\xab", "000000ab"},
+	{"%08x", "\xab\xcd", "0000abcd"},
+	{"% 08x", "\xab\xcd", "000ab cd"},
+	{"%8x", "\xab", "      ab"},
+	{"% 8x", "\xab", "      ab"},
+	{"%8x", "\xab\xcd", "    abcd"},
+	{"% 8x", "\xab\xcd", "   ab cd"},
 
 	// renamings
 	{"%v", renamedBool(true), "true"},
diff --git a/src/fmt/format.go b/src/fmt/format.go
index ac9f6d881a2312..517b18f7d4378e 100644
--- a/src/fmt/format.go
+++ b/src/fmt/format.go
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ func (f *fmt) fmt_sbx(s string, b []byte, digits string) {
 		}
 		buf = append(buf, digits[c>>4], digits[c&0xF])
 	}
-	f.buf.Write(buf)
+	f.pad(buf)
 }
 
 // fmt_sx formats a string as a hexadecimal encoding of its bytes.