How does it work?
This tool converts between straight (typewriter) quotes and curly (typographic or "smart") quotes. It also handles other typographic characters like dashes and ellipses.
- Straighten Quotes: Converts curly quotes (", ", ', ') to straight quotes (" and ').
- Curl Quotes: Converts straight quotes (" and ') to typographically correct curly quotes based on context.
Examples
Text with curly quotes
"Hello, World!" she said. 'It's a beautiful day!'
The sign read "Don't walk" — we had to wait.
The book's title was "War and Peace"…After straightening:
"Hello, World!" she said. 'It's a beautiful day!'
The sign read "Don't walk" -- we had to wait.
The book's title was "War and Peace"...Text with straight quotes
"Hello, World!" she said. 'It's a beautiful day!'
The sign read "Don't walk" -- we had to wait.
The book's title was "War and Peace"...After curling:
“Hello, World!” she said. ‘It’s a beautiful day!’
The sign read “Don’t walk” — we had to wait.
The book’s title was “War and Peace”…Character Conversions
| Curly/Typographic | Straight/ASCII | Description |
|---|---|---|
| " | " | Opening double quote |
| " | " | Closing double quote |
| ' | ' | Opening single quote |
| ' | ' | Closing single quote/apostrophe |
| — | -- | Em dash |
| – | - | En dash |
| … | ... | Ellipsis |
| • | * | Bullet |
This tool is useful for:
- Converting text between publishing formats
- Preparing text for environments that don't support curly quotes
- Improving typography for professional documents
- Cleaning up text copied from different sources
- Standardizing quote styles in a document
Note:
When curling quotes, the tool uses simple heuristics to determine whether a quote is opening or closing. It generally assumes quotes preceded by spaces are opening quotes. For complex text, you may need to manually adjust some quotes after processing.
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