diff --git a/mercurial/templates/paper/changeset.tmpl b/mercurial/templates/paper/changeset.tmpl
--- a/mercurial/templates/paper/changeset.tmpl
+++ b/mercurial/templates/paper/changeset.tmpl
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
 files, or words in the commit message</div>
 </form>
 
-<div class="description">{desc|strip|escape|addbreaks|nonempty}</div>
+<div class="description">{desc|strip|escape|nonempty}</div>
 
 <table id="changesetEntry">
 <tr>
diff --git a/mercurial/templates/static/style-paper.css b/mercurial/templates/static/style-paper.css
--- a/mercurial/templates/static/style-paper.css
+++ b/mercurial/templates/static/style-paper.css
@@ -210,6 +210,7 @@ div.description {
   border-left: 2px solid #999;
   margin: 1em 0 1em 0;
   padding: .3em;
+  white-space: pre;
 }
 
 /* Graph */