diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 723ed9c..5b9ac31 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "bitcoin_hashes"
-version = "0.3.0"
+version = "0.3.1"
 authors = ["Andrew Poelstra <apoelstra@wpsoftware.net>"]
 license = "CC0-1.0"
 description = "Hash functions used by rust-bitcoin which support rustc 1.14.0"
diff --git a/src/serde_macros.rs b/src/serde_macros.rs
index 5d7d9a8..922fa24 100644
--- a/src/serde_macros.rs
+++ b/src/serde_macros.rs
@@ -17,21 +17,63 @@ macro_rules! serde_impl(
 
         impl<'de> ::serde::Deserialize<'de> for $t {
             fn deserialize<D: ::serde::Deserializer<'de>>(d: D) -> Result<$t, D::Error> {
-                use ::serde::de::Error;
                 use hex::FromHex;
 
                 if d.is_human_readable() {
-                    let sl: String = ::serde::Deserialize::deserialize(d)?;
-                    $t::from_hex(&sl).map_err(D::Error::custom)
+                    struct HexVisitor;
+
+                    impl<'de> ::serde::de::Visitor<'de> for HexVisitor {
+                        type Value = $t;
+
+                        fn expecting(&self, formatter: &mut ::std::fmt::Formatter) -> ::std::fmt::Result {
+                            formatter.write_str("an ASCII hex string")
+                        }
+
+                        fn visit_bytes<E>(self, v: &[u8]) -> Result<Self::Value, E>
+                        where
+                            E: ::serde::de::Error,
+                        {
+                            if let Ok(hex) = ::std::str::from_utf8(v) {
+                                $t::from_hex(hex).map_err(E::custom)
+                            } else {
+                                return Err(E::invalid_value(::serde::de::Unexpected::Bytes(v), &self));
+                            }
+                        }
+
+                        fn visit_str<E>(self, v: &str) -> Result<Self::Value, E>
+                        where
+                            E: ::serde::de::Error,
+                        {
+                            $t::from_hex(v).map_err(E::custom)
+                        }
+                    }
+
+                    d.deserialize_str(HexVisitor)
                 } else {
-                    let sl: &[u8] = ::serde::Deserialize::deserialize(d)?;
-                    if sl.len() != $t::LEN {
-                        Err(D::Error::invalid_length(sl.len(), &stringify!($len)))
-                    } else {
-                        let mut ret = [0; $len];
-                        ret.copy_from_slice(sl);
-                        Ok($t(ret))
+                    struct BytesVisitor;
+
+                    impl<'de> ::serde::de::Visitor<'de> for BytesVisitor {
+                        type Value = $t;
+
+                        fn expecting(&self, formatter: &mut ::std::fmt::Formatter) -> ::std::fmt::Result {
+                            formatter.write_str("a bytestring")
+                        }
+
+                        fn visit_bytes<E>(self, v: &[u8]) -> Result<Self::Value, E>
+                        where
+                            E: ::serde::de::Error,
+                        {
+                            if v.len() != $t::LEN {
+                                Err(E::invalid_length(v.len(), &stringify!($len)))
+                            } else {
+                                let mut ret = [0; $len];
+                                ret.copy_from_slice(v);
+                                Ok($t(ret))
+                            }
+                        }
                     }
+
+                    d.deserialize_bytes(BytesVisitor)
                 }
             }
         }