diff --git a/docs/api-guide/renderers.md b/docs/api-guide/renderers.md
index 7a3429bfd..b1adf31f8 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/renderers.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/renderers.md
@@ -74,37 +74,18 @@ If your API includes views that can serve both regular webpages and API response
 
 Renders the request data into `JSON`, using utf-8 encoding.
 
-Note that non-ascii characters will be rendered using JSON's `\uXXXX` character escape.  For example:
+Note that the default style is to include unicode characters, and render the response using a compact style with no uneccessary whitespace:
 
-    {"unicode black star": "\u2605"}
+    {"unicode black star":"★","value":999}
 
 The client may additionally include an `'indent'` media type parameter, in which case the returned `JSON` will be indented.  For example `Accept: application/json; indent=4`.
 
     {
-        "unicode black star": "\u2605"
+        "unicode black star": "★",
+        "value": 999
     }
 
-**.media_type**: `application/json`
-
-**.format**: `'.json'`
-
-**.charset**: `None`
-
-## UnicodeJSONRenderer
-
-Renders the request data into `JSON`, using utf-8 encoding.
-
-Note that non-ascii characters will not be character escaped.  For example:
-
-    {"unicode black star": "★"}
-
-The client may additionally include an `'indent'` media type parameter, in which case the returned `JSON` will be indented.  For example `Accept: application/json; indent=4`.
-
-    {
-        "unicode black star": "★"
-    }
-
-Both the `JSONRenderer` and `UnicodeJSONRenderer` styles conform to [RFC 4627][rfc4627], and are syntactically valid JSON.
+The default JSON encoding style can be altered using the `UNICODE_JSON` and `COMPACT_JSON` settings keys.
 
 **.media_type**: `application/json`
 
diff --git a/docs/api-guide/settings.md b/docs/api-guide/settings.md
index 27a091633..6a855c929 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/settings.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/settings.md
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ A format string that should be used by default for rendering the output of `Date
 
 May be any of `None`, `'iso-8601'` or a Python [strftime format][strftime] string.
 
-Default: `None`
+Default: `'iso-8601'`
 
 #### DATETIME_INPUT_FORMATS
 
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ A format string that should be used by default for rendering the output of `Date
 
 May be any of `None`, `'iso-8601'` or a Python [strftime format][strftime] string.
 
-Default: `None`
+Default: `'iso-8601'`
 
 #### DATE_INPUT_FORMATS
 
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ A format string that should be used by default for rendering the output of `Time
 
 May be any of `None`, `'iso-8601'` or a Python [strftime format][strftime] string.
 
-Default: `None`
+Default: `'iso-8601'`
 
 #### TIME_INPUT_FORMATS
 
@@ -309,6 +309,46 @@ Default: `['iso-8601']`
 
 ---
 
+## Encodings
+
+#### UNICODE_JSON
+
+When set to `True`, JSON responses will allow unicode characters in responses. For example:
+
+    {"unicode black star":"★"}
+
+When set to `False`, JSON responses will escape non-ascii characters, like so:
+
+    {"unicode black star":"\u2605"}
+
+Both styles conform to [RFC 4627][rfc4627], and are syntactically valid JSON. The unicode style is prefered as being more user-friendly when inspecting API responses.
+
+Default: `True`
+
+#### COMPACT_JSON
+
+When set to `True`, JSON responses will return compact representations, with no spacing after `':'` and `','` characters. For example:
+
+    {"is_admin":false,"email":"jane@example"}
+
+When set to `False`, JSON responses will return slightly more verbose representations, like so:
+
+    {"is_admin": false, "email": "jane@example"}
+
+The default style is to return minified responses, in line with [Heroku's API design guidelines][heroku-minified-json].
+
+Default: `True`
+
+#### COERCE_DECIMAL_TO_STRING
+
+When returning decimal objects in API representations that do not support a native decimal type, it is normally best to return the value as a string. This avoids the loss of precision that occurs with binary floating point implementations.
+
+When set to `True`, the serializer `DecimalField` class will return strings instead of `Decimal` objects. When set to `False`, serializers will return `Decimal` objects, which the default JSON encoder will return as floats.
+
+Default: `True`
+
+---
+
 ## View names and descriptions
 
 **The following settings are used to generate the view names and descriptions, as used in responses to `OPTIONS` requests, and as used in the browsable API.**
@@ -378,4 +418,6 @@ An integer of 0 or more, that may be used to specify the number of application p
 Default: `None`
 
 [cite]: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/
+[rfc4627]: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt
+[heroku-minified-json]: https://github.com/interagent/http-api-design#keep-json-minified-in-all-responses
 [strftime]: http://docs.python.org/2/library/time.html#time.strftime