![]() Those marks are, of course, part of the code syntax and must be reproduced literally. Now you know why quote-curling algorithms have to be smart.Ĭonfidential to computer scientists and documentation writers: straight quotes and backticks in software code should never be converted to curly quotes. Quotation marks are an area of vast typographic diversity among other languages-both the glyphs used and how they’re spaced. ![]() (The grave accent, also sometimes called a backtick, is that character above the tab key you’ve never used.) These can be fixed by adapting the search-and-replace technique described above.ĭon’t use quotation marks for emphasis. ![]() Some older digital documents are stored with double quotes made of two single quotes ( ' ') or two grave accents ( ``). And if you’re typing with thumbs on a smartphone, it can be irrationally difficult to insert them. It’s hard to see the difference between straight and curly quotes on screen at small sizes. Straight quotes are acceptable in email. Second, this change in markup removes the quote marks from the character stream, and doesn’t help with apostrophes, so it may be a long drive for a short day at the beach. First, a parent element (like html) must have a lang attribute (like lang="en") so the q tag knows what kind of curly quotes to use. If you’re tempted to write your own straight-to-curly converter, reconsider-the good ones cover tricky edge cases that you’re apt to miss on your own.Īnother option is to use the little-known q tag, which automatically appends curly quotes to the enclosed elements. There are also JavaScript-based converters that work in the browser. If you use a CMS like WordPress, plugins are available that handle this automatically. But inserting these characters using HTML escape codes is dreary. HTML & CSS have no automatic facility for converting straight quotes to curly. They’re non-ASCII glyphs, however, so you need to specify a non-ASCII encoding for the file (like UTF‑8), otherwise they’ll get garbled on decode. You can also enter curly quotes into HTML documents using the key shortcuts above. Smart quotes are typically turned on by default. See foot and inch marks for the one exception to this rule.įortunately, avoiding straight quotes is easy: use your word processor’s smart-quote feature, which will substitute curly quotes automatically. Therefore, straight quotes should never, ever appear in your documents. Compared to straight quotes, curly quotes are more legible on the page and match the other characters better. Word processors are not limited in this way. By replacing the curly opening and closing quotes with ambidextrous straight quotes, two slots became available for other characters. But typewriter character sets were limited by mechanical constraints and physical space. In traditional printing, all quotation marks were curly. After all, were typewriters ever used to typeset books, magazines, or newspapers? Nope. They arose from necessity, not because anyone liked them. ![]() Most bad habits endemic to digital typography are former typewriter habits. Mac OS Where multiple keys are listed, type them simultaneously. Windows To use the alt codes, hold down the alt key and type the four-digit character code on your numeric keypad (num lock must be activated). There are four curly quote characters: the opening single quote ( ‘), the closing single quote ( ’), the opening double quote ( “), and the closing double quote ( ”). Straight quotes are the two generic vertical quotation marks located near the return key: the straight single quote ( ') and the straight double quote ( ").Ĭurly quotes are the quotation marks used in good typography. Straight and curly quotes Always use curly quotes
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