diff --git a/src/pytomlpp/_io.py b/src/pytomlpp/_io.py
index 14ba1f8..817ae25 100644
--- a/src/pytomlpp/_io.py
+++ b/src/pytomlpp/_io.py
@@ -3,25 +3,47 @@
 from . import _impl
 
 
-def dump(data, fl):
+def dump(data, fl, mode="w"):
     """Serialise data to TOML.
 
     Args:
         data: data to serialise
-        fl (io.TextIOBase): file-object to write to (supports ``write``)
+        fl (io.TextIOBase, str or os.Pathlike):
+            file-object to write to (supports ``write``)
+            or a file name (str, os.Pathlike) that supports ``open``
+        mode (str): opening mode. Either "w" or "wt" (text), or "wb" (binary). Defaults to "w".
+            Ignored if fl supports ``write``.
     """
+    data = _impl.dumps(data)
+    if mode == "wb":
+        data = data.encode("utf-8")
+    if hasattr(fl, "write"):
+        fl.write(data)
+        return
+    with open(fl, mode=mode) as fh:
+        fh.write(data)
 
-    fl.write(_impl.dumps(data))
 
 
-def load(fl):
+def load(fl, mode="r"):
     """Deserialise from TOML.
 
     Args:
-        fl (io.TextIOBase): file-object to read from (supports ``read``)
+        fl (io.TextIOBase, str or os.Pathlike):
+            file-object to read from (supports ``read``)
+            or a file name (str, os.Pathlike) that supports ``open``
+        mode (str):  opening mode. Either "r" or "rt" (text) or "rb" (binary). Defaults to "r".
+            Ignored if fl supports ``read``.
 
     Returns:
         deserialised data
     """
 
-    return _impl.loads(fl.read())
+    if hasattr(fl, "read"):
+        data = fl.read()
+    else:
+        with open(fl, mode=mode) as fh:
+            data = fh.read()
+    if isinstance(data, bytes):
+        return _impl.loads(data.decode("utf-8"))
+    return _impl.loads(data)
diff --git a/tests/python-tests/test_api.py b/tests/python-tests/test_api.py
index f156030..8a65c1b 100644
--- a/tests/python-tests/test_api.py
+++ b/tests/python-tests/test_api.py
@@ -87,14 +87,16 @@ def test_loads_valid_toml_files(toml_file):
         table_json = json.loads(toml_file.with_suffix(".json").read_text())
         table_expected = value_from_json(table_json)
         assert table == table_expected
-
+    table = pytomlpp.load(toml_file)
+    assert table == table_expected
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("toml_file", invalid_toml_files)
 def test_loads_invalid_toml_files(toml_file):
     with pytest.raises(pytomlpp.DecodeError):
         with open(str(toml_file), "r") as f:
             pytomlpp.load(f)
-
+    with pytest.raises(pytomlpp.DecodeError):
+        pytomlpp.load(str(toml_file))
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("toml_file", valid_toml_files)
 def test_round_trip_for_valid_toml_files(toml_file):
@@ -115,3 +117,9 @@ class A:
         pass
     with pytest.raises(TypeError):
         pytomlpp.dumps({'a': A()})
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("toml_file", valid_toml_files)
+def test_decode_encode_binary(toml_file, tmp_path):
+    data = pytomlpp.load(toml_file)
+    pytomlpp.dump(data, str(tmp_path / "tmp.toml"), mode="wb")
+    assert pytomlpp.load(str(tmp_path / "tmp.toml"), mode="rb") == data