diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 268e805..eddd686 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 - Add the missing `CSLReferences` environment in the template required by Pandoc 2.11+ and its new citeproc (#89)
 
+- `tufte_handout()` now uses default `tidy` knitr option, which is `FALSE`. It can be changed with `knitr::opts_chunk$set(tidy = TRUE)` and requires in that case the **formatR** package.
+
 # CHANGES IN tufte VERSION 0.8
 
 - References are now moved in the margin correctly with Pandoc 2.11 (#86).
diff --git a/R/handout.R b/R/handout.R
index fb66dcf..f38d3e3 100644
--- a/R/handout.R
+++ b/R/handout.R
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ tufte_pdf = function(
   if (is.null(knitr_options$knit_hooks)) knitr_options$knit_hooks = list()
 
   # set options
-  knitr_options$opts_chunk$tidy = TRUE
   knitr_options$opts_knit$width = 45
 
   # set hooks for special plot output
diff --git a/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_ctex/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd b/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_ctex/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd
index b6b3630..23b607a 100644
--- a/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_ctex/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd
+++ b/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_ctex/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ link-citations: yes
 ```{r setup, include=FALSE}
 library(tufte)
 # tufte版本变化之后更新knitr缓存
-knitr::opts_chunk$set(tidy = FALSE, cache.extra = packageVersion('tufte'))
+knitr::opts_chunk$set(cache.extra = packageVersion('tufte'))
 options(htmltools.dir.version = FALSE)
 ```
 
diff --git a/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_html/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd b/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_html/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd
index 9deae53..8875800 100644
--- a/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_html/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd
+++ b/inst/rmarkdown/templates/tufte_html/skeleton/skeleton.Rmd
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ link-citations: yes
 ```{r setup, include=FALSE}
 library(tufte)
 # invalidate cache when the tufte version changes
-knitr::opts_chunk$set(tidy = FALSE, cache.extra = packageVersion('tufte'))
+knitr::opts_chunk$set(cache.extra = packageVersion('tufte'))
 options(htmltools.dir.version = FALSE)
 ```