diff --git a/docs/configuration.rst b/docs/configuration.rst
index 32a529a0..0ceca9fb 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.rst
+++ b/docs/configuration.rst
@@ -108,6 +108,24 @@ Description Directory path used as the base for all download destinations.
 =========== =====
 
 
+extractor.*.restrict-filenames
+------------------------------
+=========== =====
+Type        ``string``
+Default     ``"auto"``
+Example     ``"/!? ()[]{}"``
+Description Characters to replace with underscores (``_``) when generating
+            directory and file names.
+
+            Special values:
+
+            * ``"auto"``: Use characters from ``"unix"`` or ``"windows"``
+              depending on the local operating system
+            * ``"unix"``: ``"/"``
+            * ``"windows"``: ``"<>:\"\\|/?*"``
+=========== =====
+
+
 extractor.*.skip
 ----------------
 =========== =====
diff --git a/docs/gallery-dl.conf b/docs/gallery-dl.conf
index 835ed17d..2e448be4 100644
--- a/docs/gallery-dl.conf
+++ b/docs/gallery-dl.conf
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
         "skip": true,
         "sleep": 0,
         "user-agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0",
+        "restrict-filenames": "auto",
 
         "artstation":
         {
diff --git a/gallery_dl/text.py b/gallery_dl/text.py
index 81e87b50..72dad5b1 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/text.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/text.py
@@ -83,22 +83,6 @@ def nameext_from_url(url, data=None):
     return data
 
 
-def clean_path_windows(path):
-    """Remove illegal characters from a path-segment (Windows)"""
-    try:
-        return re.sub(r'[<>:"\\/|?*]', "_", path)
-    except TypeError:
-        return ""
-
-
-def clean_path_posix(path):
-    """Remove illegal characters from a path-segment (Posix)"""
-    try:
-        return path.replace("/", "_")
-    except AttributeError:
-        return ""
-
-
 def extract(txt, begin, end, pos=0):
     """Extract the text between 'begin' and 'end' from 'txt'
 
@@ -266,12 +250,6 @@ def parse_datetime(date_string, format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z"):
         return date_string
 
 
-if os.name == "nt":
-    clean_path = clean_path_windows
-else:
-    clean_path = clean_path_posix
-
-
 urljoin = urllib.parse.urljoin
 
 quote = urllib.parse.quote
diff --git a/gallery_dl/util.py b/gallery_dl/util.py
index 14ae3d21..02d998d1 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/util.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/util.py
@@ -535,6 +535,27 @@ class PathFormat():
         if os.altsep and os.altsep in self.basedirectory:
             self.basedirectory = self.basedirectory.replace(os.altsep, os.sep)
 
+        restrict = extractor.config("restrict-filenames", "auto")
+        if restrict == "auto":
+            restrict = "<>:\"\\/|?*" if os.name == "nt" else "/"
+        elif restrict == "unix":
+            restrict = "/"
+        elif restrict == "windows":
+            restrict = "<>:\"\\/|?*"
+        self.clean_path = self._build_cleanfunc(restrict)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _build_cleanfunc(repl):
+        if not repl:
+            return lambda x: x
+        elif len(repl) == 1:
+            def func(x, r=repl):
+                return x.replace(r, "_")
+        else:
+            def func(x, sub=re.compile("[" + re.escape(repl) + "]").sub):
+                return sub("_", x)
+        return func
+
     def open(self, mode="wb"):
         """Open file and return a corresponding file object"""
         return open(self.temppath, mode)
@@ -551,7 +572,7 @@ class PathFormat():
         """Build directory path and create it if necessary"""
         try:
             segments = [
-                text.clean_path(
+                self.clean_path(
                     Formatter(segment, self.kwdefault)
                     .format_map(keywords).strip())
                 for segment in self.directory_fmt
@@ -597,7 +618,7 @@ class PathFormat():
     def build_path(self):
         """Use filename-keywords and directory to build a full path"""
         try:
-            self.filename = text.clean_path(
+            self.filename = self.clean_path(
                 self.formatter.format_map(self.keywords))
         except Exception as exc:
             raise exception.FormatError(exc, "filename")
diff --git a/test/test_text.py b/test/test_text.py
index 405acd35..6a6d83ae 100644
--- a/test/test_text.py
+++ b/test/test_text.py
@@ -139,26 +139,6 @@ class TestText(unittest.TestCase):
         for value in INVALID:
             self.assertEqual(f(value), empty)
 
-    def test_clean_path_windows(self, f=text.clean_path_windows):
-        self.assertEqual(f(""), "")
-        self.assertEqual(f("foo"), "foo")
-        self.assertEqual(f("foo/bar"), "foo_bar")
-        self.assertEqual(f("foo<>:\"\\/|?*bar"), "foo_________bar")
-
-        # invalid arguments
-        for value in INVALID:
-            self.assertEqual(f(value), "")
-
-    def test_clean_path_posix(self, f=text.clean_path_posix):
-        self.assertEqual(f(""), "")
-        self.assertEqual(f("foo"), "foo")
-        self.assertEqual(f("foo/bar"), "foo_bar")
-        self.assertEqual(f("foo<>:\"\\/|?*bar"), "foo<>:\"\\_|?*bar")
-
-        # invalid arguments
-        for value in INVALID:
-            self.assertEqual(f(value), "")
-
     def test_extract(self, f=text.extract):
         txt = "<a><b>"
         self.assertEqual(f(txt, "<", ">"), ("a" , 3))