diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 77a90d03..ca9a057f 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -684,7 +684,7 @@ submitted:
         <input type="file" name="cv" />
     </form>
 
-Note that ``@`` is used to simulate a file upload form field, whereas
+Please note that ``@`` is used to simulate a file upload form field, whereas
 ``=@`` just embeds the file content as a regular text field value.
 
 When uploading files, their content type is inferred from the file name. You can manually
@@ -694,16 +694,12 @@ override the inferred content type:
 
    $ http -f POST httpbin.org/post name='John Smith' cv@'~/files/data.bin;type=application/pdf'
 
-Larger multipart uploads (i.e., ``--form`` requests with at least one ``file@path``)
-are always streamed to avoid memory issues. Additionally, the display of the
-request body on the terminal is suppressed.
-
-You can explicitly use ``--multipart`` to enforce ``multipart/form-data`` even
-for form requests without any files:
+To perform a ``multipart/form-data`` request even without any files, use
+``--multipart`` instead of ``--form``:
 
 .. code-block:: bash
 
-    $ http --form --multipart --offline example.org hello=world
+    $ http --multipart --offline example.org hello=world
 
 .. code-block:: http
 
@@ -718,6 +714,10 @@ for form requests without any files:
     world
     --c31279ab254f40aeb06df32b433cbccb--
 
+Larger multipart uploads are always streamed to avoid memory issues.
+Additionally, the display of the request body on the terminal is suppressed
+for larger uploads.
+
 By default, HTTPie uses a random unique string as the boundary but you can use
 ``--boundary`` to specify a custom string instead:
 
diff --git a/httpie/cli/argparser.py b/httpie/cli/argparser.py
index 952af6af..ddad1bff 100644
--- a/httpie/cli/argparser.py
+++ b/httpie/cli/argparser.py
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@ from httpie.cli.constants import (
     DEFAULT_FORMAT_OPTIONS, HTTP_GET, HTTP_POST, OUTPUT_OPTIONS,
     OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT,
     OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT_STDOUT_REDIRECTED, OUT_RESP_BODY, PRETTY_MAP,
-    PRETTY_STDOUT_TTY_ONLY, SEPARATOR_CREDENTIALS, SEPARATOR_GROUP_ALL_ITEMS,
+    PRETTY_STDOUT_TTY_ONLY, RequestContentType,
+    SEPARATOR_CREDENTIALS, SEPARATOR_GROUP_ALL_ITEMS,
     SEPARATOR_GROUP_DATA_ITEMS, URL_SCHEME_RE,
     OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT_OFFLINE,
 )
@@ -84,6 +85,7 @@ class HTTPieArgumentParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
         )
         # Arguments processing and environment setup.
         self._apply_no_options(no_options)
+        self._process_request_content_type()
         self._process_download_options()
         self._setup_standard_streams()
         self._process_output_options()
@@ -97,12 +99,21 @@ class HTTPieArgumentParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
         self._process_auth()
         return self.args
 
+    def _process_request_content_type(self):
+        rct = self.args.request_content_type
+        self.args.json = rct is RequestContentType.JSON
+        self.args.multipart = rct is RequestContentType.MULTIPART
+        self.args.form = rct in {
+            RequestContentType.FORM,
+            RequestContentType.MULTIPART,
+        }
+
     def _process_url(self):
         if not URL_SCHEME_RE.match(self.args.url):
             if os.path.basename(self.env.program_name) == 'https':
                 scheme = 'https://'
             else:
-                scheme = self.args.default_scheme + "://"
+                scheme = self.args.default_scheme + '://'
 
             # See if we're using curl style shorthand for localhost (:3000/foo)
             shorthand = re.match(r'^:(?!:)(\d*)(/?.*)$', self.args.url)
diff --git a/httpie/cli/constants.py b/httpie/cli/constants.py
index a97ac252..7b91d674 100644
--- a/httpie/cli/constants.py
+++ b/httpie/cli/constants.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Parsing and processing of CLI input (args, auth credentials, files, stdin).
 
 """
+import enum
 import re
 
 
@@ -10,6 +11,9 @@ import re
 
 # ALPHA *( ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "-" / "." )
 # <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-3.1>
+from enum import Enum
+
+
 URL_SCHEME_RE = re.compile(r'^[a-z][a-z0-9.+-]*://', re.IGNORECASE)
 
 HTTP_POST = 'POST'
@@ -102,3 +106,9 @@ UNSORTED_FORMAT_OPTIONS_STRING = ','.join(
 OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT = OUT_RESP_HEAD + OUT_RESP_BODY
 OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT_STDOUT_REDIRECTED = OUT_RESP_BODY
 OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT_OFFLINE = OUT_REQ_HEAD + OUT_REQ_BODY
+
+
+class RequestContentType(enum.Enum):
+    FORM = enum.auto()
+    MULTIPART = enum.auto()
+    JSON = enum.auto()
diff --git a/httpie/cli/definition.py b/httpie/cli/definition.py
index 140534fd..d3f17f0f 100644
--- a/httpie/cli/definition.py
+++ b/httpie/cli/definition.py
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ from httpie.cli.constants import (
     DEFAULT_FORMAT_OPTIONS, OUTPUT_OPTIONS,
     OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT, OUT_REQ_BODY, OUT_REQ_HEAD,
     OUT_RESP_BODY, OUT_RESP_HEAD, PRETTY_MAP, PRETTY_STDOUT_TTY_ONLY,
-    SEPARATOR_GROUP_ALL_ITEMS, SEPARATOR_PROXY, SORTED_FORMAT_OPTIONS_STRING,
+    RequestContentType, SEPARATOR_GROUP_ALL_ITEMS, SEPARATOR_PROXY,
+    SORTED_FORMAT_OPTIONS_STRING,
     UNSORTED_FORMAT_OPTIONS_STRING,
 )
 from httpie.output.formatters.colors import (
@@ -141,7 +142,9 @@ content_type = parser.add_argument_group(
 
 content_type.add_argument(
     '--json', '-j',
-    action='store_true',
+    action='store_const',
+    const=RequestContentType.JSON,
+    dest='request_content_type',
     help='''
     (default) Data items from the command line are serialized as a JSON object.
     The Content-Type and Accept headers are set to application/json
@@ -151,7 +154,9 @@ content_type.add_argument(
 )
 content_type.add_argument(
     '--form', '-f',
-    action='store_true',
+    action='store_const',
+    const=RequestContentType.FORM,
+    dest='request_content_type',
     help='''
     Data items from the command line are serialized as form fields.
 
@@ -163,11 +168,12 @@ content_type.add_argument(
 )
 content_type.add_argument(
     '--multipart',
-    default=False,
-    action='store_true',
+    action='store_const',
+    const=RequestContentType.MULTIPART,
+    dest='request_content_type',
     help='''
-    Force the request to be encoded as multipart/form-data even without
-    any file fields. Only has effect only together with --form.
+    Similar to --form, but always sends a multipart/form-data
+    request (i.e., even without files).
 
     '''
 )
diff --git a/httpie/client.py b/httpie/client.py
index 879a2151..68ac50b8 100644
--- a/httpie/client.py
+++ b/httpie/client.py
@@ -139,11 +139,12 @@ def max_headers(limit):
 
 def compress_body(request: requests.PreparedRequest, always: bool):
     deflater = zlib.compressobj()
-    body_bytes = (
-        request.body
-        if isinstance(request.body, bytes)
-        else request.body.encode()
-    )
+    if isinstance(request.body, str):
+        body_bytes = request.body.encode()
+    elif hasattr(request.body, 'read'):
+        body_bytes = request.body.read()
+    else:
+        body_bytes = request.body
     deflated_data = deflater.compress(body_bytes)
     deflated_data += deflater.flush()
     is_economical = len(deflated_data) < len(body_bytes)
@@ -276,7 +277,7 @@ def make_request_kwargs(
     headers.update(args.headers)
     headers = finalize_headers(headers)
 
-    if args.form and (files or args.multipart):
+    if (args.form and files) or args.multipart:
         data, headers['Content-Type'] = get_multipart_data_and_content_type(
             data=data,
             files=files,
diff --git a/httpie/output/streams.py b/httpie/output/streams.py
index 51dc58cc..8e639208 100644
--- a/httpie/output/streams.py
+++ b/httpie/output/streams.py
@@ -125,6 +125,8 @@ class EncodedStream(BaseStream):
 
     def iter_body(self) -> Iterable[bytes]:
         for line, lf in self.msg.iter_lines(self.CHUNK_SIZE):
+            if isinstance(line, MultipartEncoder):
+                raise LargeUploadSuppressedError()
             if b'\0' in line:
                 raise BinarySuppressedError()
             yield line.decode(self.msg.encoding) \
diff --git a/httpie/ssl.py b/httpie/ssl.py
index 84504380..f41b8020 100644
--- a/httpie/ssl.py
+++ b/httpie/ssl.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class HTTPieHTTPSAdapter(HTTPAdapter):
         verify: bool,
         ssl_version: str = None,
         ciphers: str = None,
-    ) -> ssl.SSLContext:
+    ) -> 'ssl.SSLContext':
         return create_urllib3_context(
             ciphers=ciphers,
             ssl_version=resolve_ssl_version(ssl_version),
diff --git a/httpie/uploads.py b/httpie/uploads.py
index d883d746..f9ca4828 100644
--- a/httpie/uploads.py
+++ b/httpie/uploads.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from httpie.cli.dicts import RequestDataDict, RequestFilesDict
 
 # Multipart uploads smaller than this size gets buffered (otherwise streamed).
 # NOTE: Unbuffered upload requests cannot be displayed on the terminal.
-UPLOAD_BUFFER = 1024 * 100
+MULTIPART_UPLOAD_BUFFER = 1024 * 1000
 
 
 def get_multipart_data_and_content_type(
@@ -28,5 +28,5 @@ def get_multipart_data_and_content_type(
     else:
         content_type = encoder.content_type
 
-    data = encoder.to_string() if encoder.len < UPLOAD_BUFFER else encoder
+    data = encoder.to_string() if encoder.len < MULTIPART_UPLOAD_BUFFER else encoder
     return data, content_type
diff --git a/tests/test_uploads.py b/tests/test_uploads.py
index 2a12aad6..9c070dac 100644
--- a/tests/test_uploads.py
+++ b/tests/test_uploads.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class TestMultipartFormDataFileUpload:
         assert r.count(FILE_CONTENT) == 2
         assert 'Content-Type: image/vnd.microsoft.icon' in r
 
-    @mock.patch('httpie.uploads.UPLOAD_BUFFER', 0)
+    @mock.patch('httpie.uploads.MULTIPART_UPLOAD_BUFFER', 0)
     def test_large_upload_display_suppressed(self, httpbin):
         r = http(
             '--form',
@@ -79,9 +79,8 @@ class TestMultipartFormDataFileUpload:
         assert HTTP_OK in r
         assert FORM_CONTENT_TYPE in r
 
-    def test_form_no_files_multipart(self, httpbin):
+    def test_multipart(self, httpbin):
         r = http(
-            '--form',
             '--verbose',
             '--multipart',
             httpbin.url + '/post',
@@ -92,12 +91,38 @@ class TestMultipartFormDataFileUpload:
         assert FORM_CONTENT_TYPE not in r
         assert 'multipart/form-data' in r
 
+    def test_multipart_too_large_for_terminal(self, httpbin):
+        with mock.patch('httpie.uploads.MULTIPART_UPLOAD_BUFFER', 0):
+            r = http(
+                '--verbose',
+                '--multipart',
+                httpbin.url + '/post',
+                'AAAA=AAA',
+                'BBB=BBB',
+            )
+        assert HTTP_OK in r
+        assert FORM_CONTENT_TYPE not in r
+        assert 'multipart/form-data' in r
+
+    def test_multipart_too_large_for_terminal_non_pretty(self, httpbin):
+        with mock.patch('httpie.uploads.MULTIPART_UPLOAD_BUFFER', 0):
+            r = http(
+                '--verbose',
+                '--multipart',
+                '--pretty=none',
+                httpbin.url + '/post',
+                'AAAA=AAA',
+                'BBB=BBB',
+            )
+        assert HTTP_OK in r
+        assert FORM_CONTENT_TYPE not in r
+        assert 'multipart/form-data' in r
+
     def test_form_multipart_custom_boundary(self, httpbin):
         boundary = 'HTTPIE_FTW'
         r = http(
             '--print=HB',
             '--check-status',
-            '--form',
             '--multipart',
             f'--boundary={boundary}',
             httpbin.url + '/post',
@@ -112,7 +137,6 @@ class TestMultipartFormDataFileUpload:
         r = http(
             '--print=HB',
             '--check-status',
-            '--form',
             '--multipart',
             f'--boundary={boundary}',
             httpbin.url + '/post',
@@ -128,7 +152,6 @@ class TestMultipartFormDataFileUpload:
         boundary_in_header = 'HEADER_BOUNDARY'
         boundary_in_body = 'BODY_BOUNDARY'
         r = http(
-            '--form',
             '--print=HB',
             '--check-status',
             '--multipart',