diff --git a/base/multimedia.jl b/base/multimedia.jl
index d34aa1823d713..561429f5fd511 100644
--- a/base/multimedia.jl
+++ b/base/multimedia.jl
@@ -315,6 +315,9 @@ a `MethodError` if this type is not supported by either the display(s) or by `x`
 variants, one can also supply the "raw" data in the requested MIME type by passing
 `x::AbstractString` (for MIME types with text-based storage, such as text/html or
 application/postscript) or `x::Vector{UInt8}` (for binary MIME types).
+
+To customize how instances of a type are displayed, overload [`show`](@ref) rather than `display`,
+as explained in the manual section on [custom pretty-printing](@id man-custom-pretty-printing).
 """
 function display(@nospecialize x)
     for i = length(displays):-1:1