diff --git a/dvc/istextfile.py b/dvc/istextfile.py
index a11a9ce1d..7d66da5bd 100644
--- a/dvc/istextfile.py
+++ b/dvc/istextfile.py
@@ -7,15 +7,7 @@ from dvc.utils.compat import open
 # perls-guess-if-file-is-text-or-binary-implemented-in-python
 
 
-# A function that takes an integer in the 8-bit range and returns
-# a single-character byte object in py3 / a single-character string
-# in py2.
-#
-def _int2byte(i):
-    return bytes((i,))
-
-
-TEXT_CHARS = b"".join(_int2byte(i) for i in range(32, 127)) + b"\n\r\t\f\b"
+TEXT_CHARS = bytes(range(32, 127)) + b"\n\r\t\f\b"
 
 
 def istextfile(fname, blocksize=512):