diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.md b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
index 8c9af748..b2889996 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@
 * `Input` builder now supports `java.nio.file.Path`
   [#196](https://github.com/xmlunit/xmlunit/issues/196)
 
+* It is now possible to specify a custom `TransformerFactory` for
+  `DefaultComparisonFormatter`.
+  [#195](https://github.com/xmlunit/xmlunit/issues/195)
+
 ## XMLUnit for Java 2.7.0 - /Released 2020-05-12/
 
 This version contains a backwards incompatible change to the
diff --git a/xmlunit-core/src/main/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatter.java b/xmlunit-core/src/main/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatter.java
index be31a4bd..c55710af 100644
--- a/xmlunit-core/src/main/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatter.java
+++ b/xmlunit-core/src/main/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatter.java
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
  */
 public class DefaultComparisonFormatter implements ComparisonFormatter {
 
+    private TransformerFactory factory;
+
     /**
      * Return a short String of the Comparison including the XPath and the shorten value of the effected control and
      * test Node.
@@ -81,6 +83,17 @@ public String getDescription(Comparison difference) {
             controlTarget, testTarget);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set the TraX factory to use.
+     *
+     * @param f the factory to use - may be null in which case the
+     * default factory will be used.
+     * @since 2.8.0
+     */
+    public void setTransformerFactory(final TransformerFactory f) {
+        factory = f;
+    }
+
     /**
      * May alter the display of a comparison value for {@link #getShortString} based on the comparison type.
      *
@@ -453,16 +466,19 @@ protected String getFormattedNodeXml(final Node nodeToConvert, boolean formatXml
      * @since XMLUnit 2.4.0
      */
     protected Transformer createXmlTransformer(int numberOfBlanksToIndent) throws TransformerConfigurationException {
-        TransformerFactoryConfigurer.Builder b = TransformerFactoryConfigurer.builder()
-            .withExternalStylesheetLoadingDisabled()
-            .withDTDLoadingDisabled();
-
-        if (numberOfBlanksToIndent >= 0) {
-            // not all TransformerFactories support this feature
-            b = b.withSafeAttribute("indent-number", numberOfBlanksToIndent);
+        TransformerFactory fac = factory;
+        if (fac == null) {
+            TransformerFactoryConfigurer.Builder b = TransformerFactoryConfigurer.builder()
+                .withExternalStylesheetLoadingDisabled()
+                .withDTDLoadingDisabled();
+
+            if (numberOfBlanksToIndent >= 0) {
+                // not all TransformerFactories support this feature
+                b = b.withSafeAttribute("indent-number", numberOfBlanksToIndent);
+            }
+            fac = b.build().configure(TransformerFactory.newInstance());
         }
-        final TransformerFactory factory = b.build().configure(TransformerFactory.newInstance());
-        final Transformer transformer = factory.newTransformer();
+        final Transformer transformer = fac.newTransformer();
         transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.OMIT_XML_DECLARATION, "yes");
         transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.METHOD, "xml");
         if (numberOfBlanksToIndent >= 0) {
diff --git a/xmlunit-core/src/test/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatterTest.java b/xmlunit-core/src/test/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatterTest.java
index 6dfc87e3..400f00f4 100644
--- a/xmlunit-core/src/test/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatterTest.java
+++ b/xmlunit-core/src/test/java/org/xmlunit/diff/DefaultComparisonFormatterTest.java
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;
 import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.notNullValue;
 import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
 
 import org.xmlunit.builder.DiffBuilder;
 import org.xmlunit.builder.Input;
@@ -24,32 +26,36 @@
 
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.mockito.Mock;
+import org.mockito.MockitoAnnotations;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
-
+import javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException;
+import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
 
 public class DefaultComparisonFormatterTest {
 
     private DefaultComparisonFormatter compFormatter = new DefaultComparisonFormatter();
 
+    @Mock
+    private TransformerFactory fac;
+
     private static final boolean JAVA_9_PLUS, JAVA_14_PLUS;
     static {
         boolean j9 = false;
         try {
             Class.forName("java.lang.module.ModuleDescriptor");
             j9 = true;
-        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
-        } catch (Error e) {
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException | Error e) {
         }
         JAVA_9_PLUS = j9;
         boolean j14 = false;
         try {
             Class.forName("java.lang.reflect.RecordComponent");
             j14 = true;
-        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
-        } catch (Error e) {
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException | Error e) {
         }
         JAVA_14_PLUS = j14;
     }
@@ -639,6 +645,20 @@ public void testComparisonType_WhitespacesAndUnformattedDetails() {
         assertEquals("<a>\n  <b/>\n</a>", testDetailsUnformatted);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void usesCustomTransformerFactory() throws TransformerConfigurationException {
+        Diff diff = DiffBuilder.compare("<a><b/></a>").withTest("<a>\n  <b/>\n</a>").build();
+        Comparison firstDiff = diff.getDifferences().iterator().next().getComparison();
+
+        MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);
+        when(fac.newTransformer())
+            .thenReturn(TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer());
+
+        compFormatter.setTransformerFactory(fac);
+        getDetails(firstDiff.getControlDetails(), firstDiff.getType());
+        verify(fac).newTransformer();
+    }
+
     private DocumentBuilderFactory getDocumentBuilderFactoryWithoutValidation() throws ParserConfigurationException {
         // code snippet from http://stackoverflow.com/a/155874/702345
         DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();