diff --git a/docs/gallery-dl-example.conf b/docs/gallery-dl-example.conf
index 16445e2e..a3ca7f63 100644
--- a/docs/gallery-dl-example.conf
+++ b/docs/gallery-dl-example.conf
@@ -100,7 +100,21 @@
     "output":
     {
         "mode": "terminal",
-        "logfile": "~/gallery-dl/log.txt"
+        "log": {
+            "format": "{name}: {message}",
+            "level": "info"
+        },
+        "logfile": {
+            "path": "~/gallery-dl/log.txt",
+            "mode": "w",
+            "level": "debug"
+        },
+        "unsupportedfile": {
+            "path": "~/gallery-dl/unsupported.txt",
+            "mode": "a",
+            "format": "{asctime} {message}",
+            "format-date": "%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S"
+        }
     },
 
     "cache": {
diff --git a/gallery_dl/__init__.py b/gallery_dl/__init__.py
index 8e62f9c7..e698de62 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/__init__.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/__init__.py
@@ -27,20 +27,72 @@ from . import version, config, option, extractor, job, util, exception
 __version__ = version.__version__
 log = logging.getLogger("gallery-dl")
 
-def initialize_logging(loglevel, formatter):
+LOG_FORMAT = "[{name}][{levelname}] {message}"
+LOG_FORMAT_DATE = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
+LOG_LEVEL = logging.INFO
+
+def initialize_logging(loglevel):
     """Setup basic logging functionality before configfiles have been loaded"""
     # convert levelnames to lowercase
     for level in (10, 20, 30, 40, 50):
         name = logging.getLevelName(level)
         logging.addLevelName(level, name.lower())
     # setup basic logging to stderr
+    formatter = logging.Formatter(LOG_FORMAT, LOG_FORMAT_DATE, "{")
     handler = logging.StreamHandler()
     handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+    handler.setLevel(loglevel)
     root = logging.getLogger()
-    root.setLevel(loglevel)
+    root.setLevel(logging.NOTSET)
     root.addHandler(handler)
 
 
+def setup_logging_handler(key, fmt=LOG_FORMAT, lvl=LOG_LEVEL):
+    """Setup a new logging handler"""
+    opts = config.interpolate(("output", key))
+    if not opts:
+        return None
+    if isinstance(opts, str):
+        opts = {"path": opts}
+
+    path = opts.get("path")
+    mode = opts.get("mode", "w")
+    try:
+        path = util.expand_path(path)
+        handler = logging.FileHandler(path, mode)
+    except (OSError, ValueError) as exc:
+        log.warning("%s: %s", key, exc)
+        return None
+    except TypeError as exc:
+        log.warning("%s: missing or invalid path (%s)", key, exc)
+        return None
+
+    level = opts.get("level", lvl)
+    logfmt = opts.get("format", fmt)
+    datefmt = opts.get("format-date", LOG_FORMAT_DATE)
+    formatter = logging.Formatter(logfmt, datefmt, "{")
+    handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+    handler.setLevel(level)
+
+    return handler
+
+
+def configure_logging_handler(key, handler):
+    """Configure a logging handler"""
+    opts = config.interpolate(("output", key))
+    if not opts:
+        return
+    if isinstance(opts, str):
+        opts = {"format": opts}
+    if handler.level == LOG_LEVEL and "level" in opts:
+        handler.setLevel(opts["level"])
+    if "format" in opts or "format-date" in opts:
+        logfmt = opts.get("format", LOG_FORMAT)
+        datefmt = opts.get("format-date", LOG_FORMAT_DATE)
+        formatter = logging.Formatter(logfmt, datefmt, "{")
+        handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+
+
 def replace_std_streams(errors="replace"):
     """Replace standard streams and set their error handlers to 'errors'"""
     for name in ("stdout", "stdin", "stderr"):
@@ -159,8 +211,7 @@ def main():
         parser = option.build_parser()
         args = parser.parse_args()
 
-        formatter = logging.Formatter("[%(name)s][%(levelname)s] %(message)s")
-        initialize_logging(args.loglevel, formatter)
+        initialize_logging(args.loglevel)
 
         # configuration
         if args.load_config:
@@ -173,17 +224,13 @@ def main():
             config.set(key, value)
         config.set(("_",), {})
 
-        # logfile
-        logfile = config.interpolate(("output", "logfile"))
-        if logfile:
-            try:
-                path = util.expand_path(logfile)
-                handler = logging.FileHandler(path, "w")
-            except OSError as exc:
-                log.warning("log file: %s", exc)
-            else:
-                handler.setFormatter(formatter)
-                logging.getLogger().addHandler(handler)
+        # stream logging handler
+        configure_logging_handler("log", logging.getLogger().handlers[0])
+
+        # file logging handler
+        handler = setup_logging_handler("logfile", lvl=args.loglevel)
+        if handler:
+            logging.getLogger().addHandler(handler)
 
         # loglevels
         if args.loglevel >= logging.ERROR:
@@ -243,13 +290,13 @@ def main():
                 except OSError as exc:
                     log.warning("input file: %s", exc)
 
-            unsupportedfile = config.interpolate(("output", "unsupportedfile"))
-            if unsupportedfile:
-                try:
-                    path = util.expand_path(unsupportedfile)
-                    job.Job.ufile = open(path, "w")
-                except OSError as exc:
-                    log.warning("unsupported-URL file: %s", exc)
+            # unsupported file logging handler
+            handler = setup_logging_handler("unsupportedfile", fmt="{message}")
+            if handler:
+                ulog = logging.getLogger("unsupported")
+                ulog.addHandler(handler)
+                ulog.propagate = False
+                job.Job.ulog = ulog
 
             prepare_range(args.image_range, "image")
             prepare_range(args.chapter_range, "chapter")
diff --git a/gallery_dl/job.py b/gallery_dl/job.py
index 3e31e4cd..61755f3a 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/job.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/job.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ from .extractor.message import Message
 
 class Job():
     """Base class for Job-types"""
-    ufile = None
+    ulog = None
 
     def __init__(self, url, parent=None):
         self.url = url
@@ -144,8 +144,8 @@ class Job():
             kwdict.update(self.userkwds)
 
     def _write_unsupported(self, url):
-        if self.ufile:
-            print(url, file=self.ufile, flush=True)
+        if self.ulog:
+            self.ulog.info(url)
 
 
 class DownloadJob(Job):