diff --git a/Tests/test_psdraw.py b/Tests/test_psdraw.py
index e017bc54e6a..e06557c5107 100644
--- a/Tests/test_psdraw.py
+++ b/Tests/test_psdraw.py
@@ -4,14 +4,14 @@
 import sys
 from io import BytesIO
 
+import pytest
+
 from PIL import Image, PSDraw
 
 TYPE_CHECKING = False
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from pathlib import Path
 
-    import pytest
-
 
 def _create_document(ps: PSDraw.PSDraw) -> None:
     title = "hopper"
@@ -65,3 +65,34 @@ class MyStdOut:
     _create_document(ps)
 
     assert mystdout.buffer.getvalue() != b""
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("escape", (None, False, True))
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "text, expected, escaped",
+    (
+        ("plain text", b"plain text", b"plain text"),
+        ("a(b)c", rb"a\(b\)c", rb"a\(b\)c"),
+        (r"C:\temp\new", rb"C:\temp\new", rb"C:\\temp\\new"),
+        (r"a\(b)\c", rb"a\\(b\)\c", rb"a\\\(b\)\\c"),
+        (r"\n\t\101", rb"\n\t\101", rb"\\n\\t\\101"),
+    ),
+)
+def test_text(text: str, expected: bytes, escaped: bytes, escape: bool | None) -> None:
+    with BytesIO() as buffer:
+        ps = PSDraw.PSDraw(buffer)
+        if escape is None:
+            ps.text((10, 20), text)
+        else:
+            ps.text((10, 20), text, escape=escape)
+        if escape:
+            expected = escaped
+        assert buffer.getvalue() == b"10 20 M (" + expected + b") S\n"
+
+
+def test_text_encoding_error() -> None:
+    with BytesIO() as buffer:
+        ps = PSDraw.PSDraw(buffer)
+        with pytest.raises(UnicodeEncodeError):
+            ps.text((10, 20), "\u0100")
+        assert buffer.getvalue() == b""
diff --git a/docs/releasenotes/13.0.0.rst b/docs/releasenotes/13.0.0.rst
index 46dbed3b58b..e59941927c9 100644
--- a/docs/releasenotes/13.0.0.rst
+++ b/docs/releasenotes/13.0.0.rst
@@ -123,6 +123,14 @@ Two new filters are available for :py:meth:`~PIL.Image.Image.resize` and
 :py:meth:`~PIL.Image.Image.thumbnail`: ``Image.Resampling.MKS2013`` and
 ``Image.Resampling.MKS2021``. These are versions of the Magic Kernel Sharp filter.
 
+Added ``escape`` argument to ``PSDraw.text()``
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+:py:meth:`~PIL.PSDraw.PSDraw.text` now accepts a keyword-only boolean argument,
+``escape``. Set it to ``True`` to escape backslashes, for example in Windows paths.
+The default, ``False``, preserves the existing handling of backslashes and PostScript
+escape sequences.
+
 Other changes
 =============
 
diff --git a/src/PIL/PSDraw.py b/src/PIL/PSDraw.py
index d0e4d561a2a..dd43c2445ff 100644
--- a/src/PIL/PSDraw.py
+++ b/src/PIL/PSDraw.py
@@ -96,15 +96,25 @@ def rectangle(self, box: tuple[int, int, int, int]) -> None:
         """
         self.fp.write(b"%d %d M 0 %d %d Vr\n" % box)
 
-    def text(self, xy: tuple[int, int], text: str) -> None:
+    def text(self, xy: tuple[int, int], text: str, *, escape: bool = False) -> None:
         """
         Draws text at the given position. You must use
         :py:meth:`~PIL.PSDraw.PSDraw.setfont` before calling this method.
+
+        :param xy: The position, in PostScript point coordinates.
+        :param text: The text to draw, encoded as Latin-1.
+        :param escape: Whether to escape backslashes in the text. This keyword-only
+            boolean defaults to ``False``, leaving backslashes unchanged for backwards
+            compatibility. Parentheses are always escaped.
+
+            .. versionadded:: 13.0.0
         """
         # The font is loaded as ISOLatin1Encoding, so use latin-1 here.
         text_bytes = bytes(text, "latin-1")
-        text_bytes = b"\\(".join(text_bytes.split(b"("))
-        text_bytes = b"\\)".join(text_bytes.split(b")"))
+        if escape:
+            text_bytes = text_bytes.replace(b"\\", b"\\\\")
+        for char in (b"(", b")"):
+            text_bytes = text_bytes.replace(char, b"\\" + char)
         self.fp.write(b"%d %d M (%s) S\n" % (xy + (text_bytes,)))
 
     if TYPE_CHECKING: