diff --git a/src/ocrd/cli/__init__.py b/src/ocrd/cli/__init__.py
index 9e8a37b8bf..eb70d7edfc 100644
--- a/src/ocrd/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/src/ocrd/cli/__init__.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ def command_with_replaced_help(*replacements):
 
     class CommandWithReplacedHelp(click.Command):
         def get_help(self, ctx):
-            newhelp = super().get_help(ctx)
+            newhelp : str = super().get_help(ctx)
             for replacement in replacements:
                 newhelp = re.sub(*replacement, newhelp)
             # print(newhelp)
diff --git a/src/ocrd_utils/config.py b/src/ocrd_utils/config.py
index 36399870e2..16c9eb02e8 100644
--- a/src/ocrd_utils/config.py
+++ b/src/ocrd_utils/config.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ def _parser_boolean(val):
 
 class OcrdEnvVariable():
 
-    def __init__(self, name, description, parser=str, validator=lambda val: True, default=[False, None]):
+    def __init__(self, name, description, parser=str, validator=lambda _: True, default=[False, None]):
         """
         An environment variable for use in OCR-D.
 
@@ -47,10 +47,19 @@ def __str__(self):
         return f'{self.name}: {self.description}'
 
     def describe(self, wrap_text=True, indent_text=True):
+        """
+        Output help information on a config option.
+
+        If ``option.description`` is a multiline string with complex formatting
+        (e.g. markdown lists), replace empty lines with ``\b`` and set
+        ``wrap_text`` to ``False``.
+        """
         desc = self.description
         if self.has_default:
             default = self.default() if callable(self.default) else self.default
-            desc += f' (Default: "{default}")'
+            if not desc.endswith('\n'):
+                desc += ' '
+            desc += f'(Default: "{default}")'
         ret = ''
         ret  = f'{self.name}\n'
         if wrap_text:
@@ -146,11 +155,11 @@ def raw_value(self, name):
     description="""\
 Whether to enable gathering runtime statistics
 on the `ocrd.profile` logger (comma-separated):
-
+\b
 - `CPU`: yields CPU and wall-time,
 - `RSS`: also yields peak memory (resident set size)
 - `PSS`: also yields peak memory (proportional set size)
-
+\b
 """,
   validator=lambda val : all(t in ('', 'CPU', 'RSS', 'PSS') for t in val.split(',')),
   default=(True, ''))
@@ -183,11 +192,12 @@ def _ocrd_download_timeout_parser(val):
 
 config.add("OCRD_MISSING_INPUT",
     description="""\
-How to deal with missing input files (for some fileGrp/pageId) during processing:
-
+How to deal with missing input files
+(for some fileGrp/pageId) during processing:
+\b
  - `SKIP`: ignore and proceed with next page's input
  - `ABORT`: throw :py:class:`.MissingInputFile`
-
+\b
 """,
     default=(True, 'SKIP'),
     validator=lambda val: val in ['SKIP', 'ABORT'],
@@ -195,12 +205,13 @@ def _ocrd_download_timeout_parser(val):
 
 config.add("OCRD_MISSING_OUTPUT",
     description="""\
-How to deal with missing output files (for some fileGrp/pageId) during processing:
-
+How to deal with missing output files
+(for some fileGrp/pageId) during processing:
+\b
  - `SKIP`: ignore and proceed processing next page
  - `COPY`: fall back to copying input PAGE to output fileGrp for page
  - `ABORT`: re-throw whatever caused processing to fail
-
+\b
 """,
     default=(True, 'SKIP'),
     validator=lambda val: val in ['SKIP', 'COPY', 'ABORT'],
@@ -213,12 +224,13 @@ def _ocrd_download_timeout_parser(val):
 
 config.add("OCRD_EXISTING_OUTPUT",
     description="""\
-How to deal with already existing output files (for some fileGrp/pageId) during processing:
-
+How to deal with already existing output files
+(for some fileGrp/pageId) during processing:
+\b
  - `SKIP`: ignore and proceed processing next page
  - `OVERWRITE`: force writing result to output fileGrp for page
  - `ABORT`: re-throw :py:class:`FileExistsError`
-
+\b
 """,
     default=(True, 'SKIP'),
     validator=lambda val: val in ['SKIP', 'OVERWRITE', 'ABORT'],