diff --git a/bin/q b/bin/q
index 62b7894e..a9448760 100755
--- a/bin/q
+++ b/bin/q
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 #
 # Run with --help for command line details
 #
-q_version = "1.5.0" 
+q_version = "1.6.0notreleasedyet" 
 
 __all__ = [ 'QTextAsData' ]
 
@@ -1353,8 +1353,9 @@ class QOutputPrinter(object):
                 data.insert(0,results.metadata.output_column_name_list)
             for rownum, row in enumerate(data):
                 row_str = []
+                skip_formatting = rownum == 0 and self.output_params.output_header
                 for i, col in enumerate(row):
-                    if formatting_dict is not None and str(i + 1) in formatting_dict.keys():
+                    if formatting_dict is not None and str(i + 1) in formatting_dict.keys() and not skip_formatting:
                         fmt_str = formatting_dict[str(i + 1)]
                     else:
                         if self.output_params.beautify:
@@ -1371,6 +1372,9 @@ class QOutputPrinter(object):
         except (UnicodeEncodeError, UnicodeError), e:
             print >>sys.stderr, "Cannot encode data. Error:%s" % e
             sys.exit(3)
+        except TypeError,e:
+            print >>sys.stderr, "Error while formatting output: %s" % e
+            sys.exit(4)
         except IOError, e:
             if e.errno == 32:
                 # broken pipe, that's ok
diff --git a/test/test-suite b/test/test-suite
index f506024a..b4eddba7 100755
--- a/test/test-suite
+++ b/test/test-suite
@@ -1582,15 +1582,28 @@ class ParsingModeTests(AbstractQTestCase):
 class FormattingTests(AbstractQTestCase):
 
     def test_column_formatting(self):
-        cmd = 'seq 1 10 | ../bin/q -f 1=%4.3f,2=%4.3f "select sum(c1),avg(c1) from -"'
+        cmd = 'seq 1 10 | ../bin/q -f 1=%4.3f,2=%4.3f "select sum(c1),avg(c1) from -" -c 1'
 
         retcode, o, e = run_command(cmd)
 
         self.assertEquals(retcode, 0)
         self.assertEquals(len(o), 1)
+        self.assertEquals(len(e), 0)
 
         self.assertEquals(o[0], '55.000 5.500')
 
+    def test_column_formatting_with_output_header(self):
+        cmd = 'seq 1 10 | sed "1i column_name" | ../bin/q -f 1=%4.3f,2=%4.3f "select sum(column_name) mysum,avg(column_name) myavg from -" -c 1 -H -O'
+
+        retcode, o, e = run_command(cmd)
+
+        self.assertEquals(retcode, 0)
+        self.assertEquals(len(o), 2)
+        self.assertEquals(len(e), 0)
+
+        self.assertEquals(o[0], 'mysum myavg')
+        self.assertEquals(o[1], '55.000 5.500')
+
 
 class SqlTests(AbstractQTestCase):