diff --git a/api/client.go b/api/client.go
index b39b102330..f1a3f64f2a 100644
--- a/api/client.go
+++ b/api/client.go
@@ -2044,7 +2044,9 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdCp(args ...string) error {
 }
 
 func (cli *DockerCli) CmdSave(args ...string) error {
-	cmd := cli.Subcmd("save", "IMAGE", "Save an image to a tar archive (streamed to stdout)")
+	cmd := cli.Subcmd("save", "IMAGE", "Save an image to a tar archive (streamed to stdout by default)")
+	outfile := cmd.String([]string{"o", "-output"}, "", "Write to an file, instead of STDOUT")
+
 	if err := cmd.Parse(args); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -2054,8 +2056,18 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdSave(args ...string) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	var (
+		output io.Writer = cli.out
+		err    error
+	)
+	if *outfile != "" {
+		output, err = os.Create(*outfile)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
 	image := cmd.Arg(0)
-	if err := cli.stream("GET", "/images/"+image+"/get", nil, cli.out, nil); err != nil {
+	if err := cli.stream("GET", "/images/"+image+"/get", nil, output, nil); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	return nil
diff --git a/docs/sources/reference/commandline/cli.rst b/docs/sources/reference/commandline/cli.rst
index 757f3b239b..f4a5e0882f 100644
--- a/docs/sources/reference/commandline/cli.rst
+++ b/docs/sources/reference/commandline/cli.rst
@@ -1317,10 +1317,27 @@ This example shows 5 containers that might be set up to test a web application c
 
 ::
 
-    Usage: docker save image > repository.tar
+    Usage: docker save IMAGE
+
+    Save an image to a tar archive (streamed to stdout by default)
+
+      -o, --output="": Write to an file, instead of STDOUT
+
+
+Produces a tarred repository to the standard output stream.
+Contains all parent layers, and all tags + versions, or specified repo:tag.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   $ sudo docker save busybox > busybox.tar
+   $ ls -sh b.tar
+   2.7M b.tar
+   $ sudo docker save --output busybox.tar busybox
+   $ ls -sh b.tar
+   2.7M b.tar
+   $ sudo docker save -o fedora-all.tar fedora
+   $ sudo docker save -o fedora-latest.tar fedora:latest
 
-    Streams a tarred repository to the standard output stream.
-    Contains all parent layers, and all tags + versions.
 
 .. _cli_search: