diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py
index b5c057b0f9..ac5acdaf4b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py
@@ -42,6 +42,12 @@ option.
 For full documentation of the conversion system see
 ''') + 'http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/conversion.html'
 
+HEURISTIC_OPTIONS = ['markup_chapter_headings',
+                      'italicize_common_cases', 'fix_indents',
+                      'html_unwrap_factor', 'unwrap_lines',
+                      'delete_blank_paragraphs', 'format_scene_breaks',
+                      'dehyphenate', 'renumber_headings']
+
 def print_help(parser, log):
     help = parser.format_help().encode(preferred_encoding, 'replace')
     log(help)
@@ -83,6 +89,8 @@ def option_recommendation_to_cli_option(add_option, rec):
     if opt.long_switch == 'verbose':
         attrs['action'] = 'count'
         attrs.pop('type', '')
+    if opt.name in HEURISTIC_OPTIONS and rec.recommended_value is True:
+        switches = ['--disable-'+opt.long_switch]
     add_option(Option(*switches, **attrs))
 
 def add_input_output_options(parser, plumber):
@@ -129,18 +137,15 @@ def add_pipeline_options(parser, plumber):
                       'asciiize',
                   ]
                   ),
-                  
+
               'HEURISTIC PROCESSING' : (
-                  _('Modify the document text and structure using common patterns.'),
-                  [
-                      'enable_heuristics', 'markup_chapter_headings',
-                      'italicize_common_cases', 'fix_indents',
-                      'html_unwrap_factor', 'unwrap_lines',
-                      'delete_blank_paragraphs', 'format_scene_breaks',
-                      'dehyphenate', 'renumber_headings',
-                  ]
+                  _('Modify the document text and structure using common'
+                     ' patterns. Disabled by default. Use %s to enable. '
+                     ' Individual actions can be diable with the %s options.')
+                  % ('--enable-heuristics', '--disable-*'),
+                  ['enable_heuristics'] + HEURISTIC_OPTIONS
                   ),
-                  
+
               'SEARCH AND REPLACE' : (
                  _('Modify the document text and structure using user defined patterns.'),
                  [
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
index 04ee892c19..908ca6a493 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
@@ -490,19 +490,19 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='enable_heuristics',
            'heuristic processing to take place.')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='markup_chapter_headings',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Detect unformatted chapter headings and sub headings. Change '
            'them to h2 and h3 tags.  This setting will not create a TOC, '
            'but can be used in conjunction with structure detection to create '
            'one.')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='italicize_common_cases',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Look for common words and patterns that denote '
            'italics and italicize them.')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='fix_indents',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Turn indentation created from multiple non-breaking space entities '
            'into CSS indents.')),
 
@@ -515,28 +515,28 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='html_unwrap_factor',
             'be reduced')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='unwrap_lines',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Unwrap lines using punctuation and other formatting clues.')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='delete_blank_paragraphs',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Remove empty paragraphs from the document when they exist between '
            'every other paragraph')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='format_scene_breaks',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Left aligned scene break markers are center aligned. '
            'Replace soft scene breaks that use multiple blank lines with'
            'horizontal rules.')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='dehyphenate',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Analyze hyphenated words throughout the document.  The '
            'document itself is used as a dictionary to determine whether hyphens '
            'should be retained or removed.')),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='renumber_headings',
-    recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+    recommended_value=True, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Looks for occurrences of sequential <h1> or <h2> tags. '
            'The tags are renumbered to prevent splitting in the middle '
            'of chapter headings.')),