diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 02399e9..37ca7dc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ JTGT
 
 - publish Javadoc artifact
 - link to hosted Javadoc
+- JSON-compatible String representation of TextGrid objects
 
 ### Fixed
 
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 61d82b2..fca49b7 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -15,7 +15,10 @@ repositories {
 }
 
 dependencies {
+    compile group: 'org.apache.commons', name: 'commons-lang3', version: '3.7'
+    compile group: 'org.json', name: 'json', version: '20180130'
     testCompile group: 'org.testng', name: 'testng', version: '6.8.13'
+    testCompile group: 'commons-io', name: 'commons-io', version: '2.6'
 }
 
 test {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Annotation.java b/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Annotation.java
index 107acdb..527c8e2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Annotation.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Annotation.java
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 package org.m2ci.msp.jtgt;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ReflectionToStringBuilder;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ToStringStyle;
+import org.json.JSONObject;
 
 /**
  * TextGrid annotation wrapper class
@@ -104,6 +107,11 @@ public boolean equals(Object o) {
                 (getEnd() == ((Annotation) o).getEnd())  &&
                 getText().equals(((Annotation) o).getText()));
     }
+
+    public String toString() {
+        String jsonStr = new ReflectionToStringBuilder(this, ToStringStyle.JSON_STYLE).toString();
+        return new JSONObject(jsonStr).toString(4);
+    }
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGrid.java b/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGrid.java
index 169625d..e9427e4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGrid.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGrid.java
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 package org.m2ci.msp.jtgt;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ReflectionToStringBuilder;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ToStringStyle;
+import org.json.JSONObject;
+
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 
 /**
@@ -243,6 +247,11 @@ public boolean equals(Object o) {
                 (((getFilename() == null) && (((TextGrid) o).getFilename() == null)) || getFilename().equals(((TextGrid) o).getFilename())) &&
                 (getTiers().equals(((TextGrid) o).getTiers())));
     }
+
+    public String toString() {
+        String jsonStr = new ReflectionToStringBuilder(this, ToStringStyle.JSON_STYLE).toString();
+        return new JSONObject(jsonStr).toString(4);
+    }
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Tier.java b/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Tier.java
index 07c964e..8b881bd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Tier.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/Tier.java
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 package org.m2ci.msp.jtgt;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ReflectionToStringBuilder;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ToStringStyle;
+import org.json.JSONObject;
+
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 
 /**
@@ -183,6 +187,11 @@ public boolean equals(Object o) {
                 getName().equals(((Tier) o).getName()) &&
                 getAnnotations().equals(((Tier) o).getAnnotations()));
     }
+
+    public String toString() {
+        String jsonStr = new ReflectionToStringBuilder(this, ToStringStyle.JSON_STYLE).toString();
+        return new JSONObject(jsonStr).toString(4);
+    }
 }
 
 /* Tier.java ends here */
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGridTest.java b/src/test/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGridTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f0a2e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/TextGridTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package org.m2ci.msp.jtgt;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
+import org.json.JSONObject;
+import org.m2ci.msp.jtgt.annotation.IntervalAnnotation;
+import org.m2ci.msp.jtgt.tier.IntervalTier;
+import org.testng.Assert;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+public class TextGridTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testToString() throws IOException {
+        // create TextGrid
+        IntervalAnnotation foo = new IntervalAnnotation(0, 0.5, "foo");
+        IntervalAnnotation bar = new IntervalAnnotation(0.5, 1, "bar");
+        IntervalTier tier = new IntervalTier("foobar");
+        tier.addAnnotation(foo);
+        tier.addAnnotation(bar);
+        tier.setStart(foo.getStart());
+        tier.setEnd(bar.getEnd());
+        TextGrid tg = new TextGrid();
+        tg.addTier(tier);
+        tg.setStart(tier.getStart());
+        tg.setEnd(tier.getEnd());
+        // compare as JSON
+        String actualStr = tg.toString();
+        String expectedStr = IOUtils.resourceToString("/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/foobar.json", StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+        Map actual = new JSONObject(actualStr).toMap();
+        Map expected = new JSONObject(expectedStr).toMap();
+        Assert.assertEquals(actual, expected);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/test/resources/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/foobar.json b/src/test/resources/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/foobar.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6eeb151
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/resources/org/m2ci/msp/jtgt/foobar.json
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+{
+  "_filename": null,
+  "_start": 0,
+  "_end": 1,
+  "_tiers": [
+    {
+      "_start": 0,
+      "_end": 1,
+      "_name": "foobar",
+      "_annotations": [
+        {
+          "_start": 0,
+          "_end": 0.5,
+          "_text": "foo"
+        },
+        {
+          "_start": 0.5,
+          "_end": 1,
+          "_text": "bar"
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  ]
+}