diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 78bdab73ce..5cc7000284 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ Unix:
 All (GUI):
 
 - Allow requesting modern (3.x+) OpenGL version in wxGLCanvas (Fabio Arnold).
+- Allow customizing window shown by wxBusyInfo.
 - XRC handler for wxAuiToolBar added (Kinaou Hervé, David Hart).
 - Add wxFD_NO_FOLLOW style for wxFileDialog (Luca Bacci).
 - Add support for embedding bitmaps in generated SVG in wxSVGFileDC (iwbnwif).
diff --git a/include/wx/busyinfo.h b/include/wx/busyinfo.h
index 600c86c634..7de6f22fef 100644
--- a/include/wx/busyinfo.h
+++ b/include/wx/busyinfo.h
@@ -13,6 +13,59 @@
 
 #if wxUSE_BUSYINFO
 
+// This class is used to pass all the various parameters to wxBusyInfo ctor.
+// According to the usual naming conventions (see wxAboutDialogInfo,
+// wxFontInfo, ...) it would be called wxBusyInfoInfo, but this would have been
+// rather strange, so we call it wxBusyInfoFlags instead.
+//
+// Methods are mostly self-explanatory except for the difference between "Text"
+// and "Label": the former can contain markup, while the latter is just plain
+// string which is not parsed in any way.
+class wxBusyInfoFlags
+{
+public:
+    wxBusyInfoFlags()
+    {
+        m_parent = NULL;
+        m_alpha = wxALPHA_OPAQUE;
+    }
+
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Parent(wxWindow* parent)
+        { m_parent = parent; return *this; }
+
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Icon(const wxIcon& icon)
+        { m_icon = icon; return *this; }
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Title(const wxString& title)
+        { m_title = title; return *this; }
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Text(const wxString& text)
+        { m_text = text; return *this; }
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Label(const wxString& label)
+        { m_label = label; return *this; }
+
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Foreground(const wxColour& foreground)
+        { m_foreground = foreground; return *this; }
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Background(const wxColour& background)
+        { m_background = background; return *this; }
+
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Transparency(wxByte alpha)
+        { m_alpha = alpha; return *this; }
+
+private:
+    wxWindow* m_parent;
+
+    wxIcon m_icon;
+    wxString m_title,
+             m_text,
+             m_label;
+
+    wxColour m_foreground,
+             m_background;
+
+    wxByte m_alpha;
+
+    friend class wxBusyInfo;
+};
+
 #include "wx/generic/busyinfo.h"
 
 #endif // wxUSE_BUSYINFO
diff --git a/include/wx/generic/busyinfo.h b/include/wx/generic/busyinfo.h
index 7f56edb26d..d910668c86 100644
--- a/include/wx/generic/busyinfo.h
+++ b/include/wx/generic/busyinfo.h
@@ -27,11 +27,21 @@ class WXDLLIMPEXP_FWD_CORE wxWindow;
 class WXDLLIMPEXP_CORE wxBusyInfo : public wxObject
 {
 public:
-    wxBusyInfo(const wxString& message, wxWindow *parent = NULL);
+    wxBusyInfo(const wxBusyInfoFlags& flags)
+    {
+        Init(flags);
+    }
+
+    wxBusyInfo(const wxString& message, wxWindow *parent = NULL)
+    {
+        Init(wxBusyInfoFlags().Parent(parent).Label(message));
+    }
 
     virtual ~wxBusyInfo();
 
 private:
+    void Init(const wxBusyInfoFlags& flags);
+
     wxFrame *m_InfoFrame;
 
     wxDECLARE_NO_COPY_CLASS(wxBusyInfo);
diff --git a/interface/wx/busyinfo.h b/interface/wx/busyinfo.h
index 0953d49f9d..59cd50d5fc 100644
--- a/interface/wx/busyinfo.h
+++ b/interface/wx/busyinfo.h
@@ -9,8 +9,13 @@
     @class wxBusyInfo
 
     This class makes it easy to tell your user that the program is temporarily busy.
-    Just create a wxBusyInfo object on the stack, and within the current scope,
-    a message window will be shown.
+
+    Normally the main thread should always return to the main loop to continue
+    dispatching events as quickly as possible, hence this class shouldn't be
+    needed. However if the main thread does need to block, this class provides
+    a simple way to at least show this to the user: just create a wxBusyInfo
+    object on the stack, and within the current scope, a message window will be
+    shown.
 
     For example:
 
@@ -26,6 +31,28 @@
     It works by creating a window in the constructor, and deleting it
     in the destructor.
 
+    This window is rather plain by default but can be customized by passing
+    wxBusyInfo constructor an object of wxBusyInfoFlags class instead of a
+    simple message. Here is an example from the @ref page_samples_dialogs:
+    @code
+        wxBusyInfo info
+            (
+                wxBusyInfoFlags()
+                    .Parent(this)
+                    .Icon(wxArtProvider::GetIcon(wxART_PRINT,
+                                                 wxART_OTHER, wxSize(128, 128)))
+                    .Title("<b>Printing your document</b>")
+                    .Text("Please wait...")
+                    .Foreground(*wxWHITE)
+                    .Background(*wxBLACK)
+                    .Transparency(4*wxALPHA_OPAQUE/5)
+            );
+    @endcode
+    showing that separate title and text can be set, and that simple markup
+    (@ref wxControl::SetLabelMarkup()) can be used in them, and that it's also
+    possible to add an icon and customize the colours and transparency of the
+    window.
+
     You may also want to call wxTheApp->Yield() to refresh the window
     periodically (in case it had been obscured by other windows, for
     example) like this:
@@ -57,7 +84,25 @@ class wxBusyInfo
 {
 public:
     /**
-        Constructs a busy info window as child of @a parent and displays @e msg in it.
+        General constructor.
+
+        This constructor allows to specify all supported attributes by calling
+        the appropriate methods on wxBusyInfoFlags object passed to it as
+        parameter. All of them are optional but usually at least the message
+        should be specified.
+
+        @since 3.1.0
+     */
+    wxBusyInfo(const wxBusyInfoFlags& flags);
+
+    /**
+        Simple constructor specifying only the message and the parent.
+
+        This constructs a busy info window as child of @a parent and displays
+        @a msg in it. It is exactly equivalent to using
+        @code
+            wxBusyInfo(wxBusyInfoFlags().Parent(parent).Label(message))
+        @endcode
 
         @note If @a parent is not @NULL you must ensure that it is not
               closed while the busy info is shown.
@@ -70,3 +115,86 @@ public:
     virtual ~wxBusyInfo();
 };
 
+/**
+    Parameters for wxBusyInfo.
+
+    This class exists only in order to make passing attributes to wxBusyInfo
+    constructor easier and the code doing it more readable.
+
+    All methods of this class return the reference to the object on which they
+    are called, making it possible to chain them together, e.g. typically you
+    would just create a temporary wxBusyInfoFlags object and then call the
+    methods corresponding to the attributes you want to set, before finally
+    passing the result to wxBusyInfo constructor, e.g.:
+    @code
+        wxBusyInfo info
+            (
+                wxBusyInfoFlags()
+                    .Parent(window)
+                    .Icon(icon)
+                    .Title("Some text")
+                    .Text("Some more text")
+                    .Foreground(wxColour(...))
+                    .Background(wxColour(...))
+            );
+    @endcode
+
+    @since 3.1.0
+ */
+class wxBusyInfoFlags
+{
+public:
+    /**
+        Default constructor initializes all attributes to default values.
+
+        Call the other methods to really fill in the object.
+     */
+    wxBusyInfoFlags();
+
+    /// Sets the parent for wxBusyInfo.
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Parent(wxWindow* parent);
+
+    /// Sets the icon to show in wxBusyInfo.
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Icon(const wxIcon& icon);
+
+    /**
+        Sets the title, shown prominently in wxBusyInfo window.
+
+        The @a title string may contain markup as described in
+        wxControl::SetLabelMarkup().
+     */
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Title(const wxString& title);
+
+    /**
+        Sets the more detailed text, shown under the title, if any.
+
+        The @a text string may contain markup as described in
+        wxControl::SetLabelMarkup().
+     */
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Text(const wxString& text);
+
+    /**
+        Same as Text() but doesn't interpret the string as containing markup.
+
+        This method should be used if the text shown in wxBusyInfo comes from
+        external source and so may contain characters having special meaning in
+        simple markup, e.g. '<'.
+     */
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Label(const wxString& label);
+
+    /// Sets the foreground colour of the title and text strings.
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Foreground(const wxColour& foreground);
+
+    /// Sets the background colour of wxBusyInfo window.
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Background(const wxColour& background);
+
+    /**
+        Sets the transparency of wxBusyInfo window.
+
+        @param alpha Value in wxALPHA_TRANSPARENT (0) to wxALPHA_OPAQUE (255)
+            range.
+
+        @see wxTopLevelWindow::SetTransparent()
+     */
+    wxBusyInfoFlags& Transparency(wxByte alpha);
+};
diff --git a/samples/dialogs/dialogs.cpp b/samples/dialogs/dialogs.cpp
index 7804fc425c..0022327b54 100644
--- a/samples/dialogs/dialogs.cpp
+++ b/samples/dialogs/dialogs.cpp
@@ -233,6 +233,7 @@ wxBEGIN_EVENT_TABLE(MyFrame, wxFrame)
 
 #if wxUSE_BUSYINFO
     EVT_MENU(DIALOGS_BUSYINFO,                      MyFrame::ShowBusyInfo)
+    EVT_MENU(DIALOGS_BUSYINFO_RICH,                 MyFrame::ShowRichBusyInfo)
 #endif // wxUSE_BUSYINFO
 
 #if wxUSE_FINDREPLDLG
@@ -474,6 +475,7 @@ bool MyApp::OnInit()
 
     #if wxUSE_BUSYINFO
        info_menu->Append(DIALOGS_BUSYINFO, wxT("&Busy info dialog\tCtrl-B"));
+       info_menu->Append(DIALOGS_BUSYINFO_RICH, wxT("&Rich busy info dialog\tShift-Ctrl-B"));
     #endif // wxUSE_BUSYINFO
 
     #if wxUSE_LOG_DIALOG
@@ -2422,7 +2424,28 @@ void MyFrame::ShowBusyInfo(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event))
     }
 
     wxSleep(2);
-    //wxWakeUpIdle();
+}
+
+void MyFrame::ShowRichBusyInfo(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event))
+{
+    wxWindowDisabler disableAll;
+
+    // This is just an example and not an encouragement for printing
+    // synchronously from the main thread.
+    wxBusyInfo info
+        (
+            wxBusyInfoFlags()
+                .Parent(this)
+                .Icon(wxArtProvider::GetIcon(wxART_PRINT,
+                                             wxART_OTHER, wxSize(128, 128)))
+                .Title("<b>Printing your document</b>")
+                .Text("Please wait...")
+                .Foreground(*wxWHITE)
+                .Background(*wxBLACK)
+                .Transparency(4*wxALPHA_OPAQUE/5)
+        );
+
+    wxSleep(5);
 }
 
 #endif // wxUSE_BUSYINFO
diff --git a/samples/dialogs/dialogs.h b/samples/dialogs/dialogs.h
index 71f022161d..06d6b46ca2 100644
--- a/samples/dialogs/dialogs.h
+++ b/samples/dialogs/dialogs.h
@@ -441,6 +441,7 @@ public:
 
 #if wxUSE_BUSYINFO
     void ShowBusyInfo(wxCommandEvent& event);
+    void ShowRichBusyInfo(wxCommandEvent& event);
 #endif // wxUSE_BUSYINFO
 
 #if wxUSE_FINDREPLDLG
@@ -577,6 +578,7 @@ enum
     DIALOGS_ABOUTDLG_FULL,
     DIALOGS_ABOUTDLG_CUSTOM,
     DIALOGS_BUSYINFO,
+    DIALOGS_BUSYINFO_RICH,
     DIALOGS_FIND,
     DIALOGS_REPLACE,
     DIALOGS_REQUEST,
diff --git a/src/generic/busyinfo.cpp b/src/generic/busyinfo.cpp
index 3e9e728875..ec9798cd01 100644
--- a/src/generic/busyinfo.cpp
+++ b/src/generic/busyinfo.cpp
@@ -16,57 +16,106 @@
 
 // for all others, include the necessary headers
 #ifndef WX_PRECOMP
-    #include "wx/frame.h"
+    #include "wx/m_InfoFrame.h"
     #include "wx/stattext.h"
     #include "wx/panel.h"
+    #include "wx/sizer.h"
+    #include "wx/statbmp.h"
     #include "wx/utils.h"
 #endif
 
 #include "wx/busyinfo.h"
-#include "wx/generic/stattextg.h"
 
-class WXDLLEXPORT wxInfoFrame : public wxFrame
-{
-public:
-    wxInfoFrame(wxWindow *parent, const wxString& message);
+// wxStaticText currently supports markup only in wxGTK and wxOSX/Cocoa, so use
+// the generic version for markup support in the other ports.
+#if wxUSE_MARKUP && !(defined(__WXGTK__) || defined(__WXOSX_COCOA__))
+    #include "wx/generic/stattextg.h"
 
-private:
-    wxDECLARE_NO_COPY_CLASS(wxInfoFrame);
-};
-
-
-wxInfoFrame::wxInfoFrame(wxWindow *parent, const wxString& message)
-           : wxFrame(parent, wxID_ANY, wxString(),
-                     wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize,
-                     wxSIMPLE_BORDER | wxFRAME_TOOL_WINDOW | wxSTAY_ON_TOP)
-{
-    wxPanel *panel = new wxPanel( this );
-#ifdef __WXGTK__
-    wxGenericStaticText *text = new wxGenericStaticText(panel, wxID_ANY, message);
+    #define wxStaticTextWithMarkupSupport wxGenericStaticText
 #else
-    wxStaticText *text = new wxStaticText(panel, wxID_ANY, message);
+    #define wxStaticTextWithMarkupSupport wxStaticText
 #endif
 
-    panel->SetCursor(*wxHOURGLASS_CURSOR);
-    text->SetCursor(*wxHOURGLASS_CURSOR);
-
-    // make the frame of at least the standard size (400*80) but big enough
-    // for the text we show
-    wxSize size = text->GetBestSize();
-    size.IncBy(ConvertDialogToPixels(wxPoint(10, 10)));
-    size.IncTo(wxSize(400, 80));
-    SetClientSize(size);
-
-    // need to size the panel correctly first so that text->Centre() works
-    panel->SetSize(GetClientSize());
-
-    text->Centre(wxBOTH);
-    Centre(wxBOTH);
-}
-
-wxBusyInfo::wxBusyInfo(const wxString& message, wxWindow *parent)
+void wxBusyInfo::Init(const wxBusyInfoFlags& flags)
 {
-    m_InfoFrame = new wxInfoFrame(parent, message);
+    m_InfoFrame = new wxFrame(flags.m_parent, wxID_ANY, wxString(),
+                              wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize,
+                              wxSIMPLE_BORDER |
+                              wxFRAME_TOOL_WINDOW |
+                              wxSTAY_ON_TOP);
+
+    wxPanel* const panel = new wxPanel(m_InfoFrame);
+
+    wxBoxSizer* const sizer = new wxBoxSizer(wxVERTICAL);
+
+    const wxSizerFlags sizerFlags = wxSizerFlags().DoubleBorder().Centre();
+
+    if ( flags.m_icon.IsOk() )
+    {
+        sizer->Add(new wxStaticBitmap(panel, wxID_ANY, flags.m_icon), sizerFlags);
+    }
+
+    wxControl* title;
+    if ( !flags.m_title.empty() )
+    {
+        title = new wxStaticTextWithMarkupSupport(panel, wxID_ANY, wxString());
+        title->SetFont(title->GetFont().Scaled(2));
+        title->SetLabelMarkup(flags.m_title);
+
+        sizer->Add(title, sizerFlags);
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        title = NULL;
+    }
+
+    // Vertically center the text in the window.
+    sizer->AddStretchSpacer();
+
+    wxControl* text;
+#if wxUSE_MARKUP
+    if ( !flags.m_text.empty() )
+    {
+        text = new wxStaticTextWithMarkupSupport(panel, wxID_ANY, wxString());
+        text->SetLabelMarkup(flags.m_text);
+    }
+    else
+#endif // wxUSE_MARKUP
+    {
+        text = new wxStaticText(panel, wxID_ANY, wxString());
+        text->SetLabelText(flags.m_label);
+    }
+
+    sizer->Add(text, sizerFlags);
+
+    sizer->AddStretchSpacer();
+
+    panel->SetSizer(sizer);
+
+    if ( flags.m_foreground.IsOk() )
+    {
+        if ( title )
+            title->SetForegroundColour(flags.m_foreground);
+        text->SetForegroundColour(flags.m_foreground);
+    }
+
+    if ( flags.m_background.IsOk() )
+        panel->SetBackgroundColour(flags.m_background);
+
+    if ( flags.m_alpha != wxALPHA_OPAQUE )
+        m_InfoFrame->SetTransparent(flags.m_alpha);
+
+    m_InfoFrame->SetCursor(*wxHOURGLASS_CURSOR);
+
+    // We need to accommodate our contents, but also impose some minimal size
+    // to make the busy info frame more noticeable.
+    wxSize size = panel->GetBestSize();
+    size.IncTo(wxSize(400, 80));
+
+    m_InfoFrame->SetClientSize(size);
+    m_InfoFrame->Layout();
+
+    m_InfoFrame->Centre(wxBOTH);
     m_InfoFrame->Show(true);
     m_InfoFrame->Refresh();
     m_InfoFrame->Update();