Convert straight typewriter quotes to typographic curly quotes, em-dashes, en-dashes, ellipses, and symbols — paste text and copy the polished result instantly.
Straight quotes and double hyphens are a legacy of typewriter keyboards that had only one key for each. Professional typography uses directional curly quotes, proper dashes, and the ellipsis character — the difference is visible on any high-resolution screen and is expected in published work, press releases, e-books, marketing copy, and academic writing. Most word processors do this automatically, but plain-text editors, code editors, and CMS fields do not.
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Use Cases
Blog & Article Writing
Polish CMS text before publishing — no more typewriter quotes online
E-book & Publishing
Ensure typographically correct quotes in ebooks and formatted documents
Marketing Copy
Upgrade ad copy and landing page text to professional typographic standards
Developers
Convert plain-text content to typographic form before inserting into HTML
What this tool does
The Smart Quotes Formatter converts typewriter-style punctuation — straight quotes, double hyphens, three-dot sequences, and keyboard shorthand for copyright and trademark — into their proper typographic Unicode equivalents.
How it works
Paste your text and toggle which conversions to apply. The tool uses context-aware regular expressions to tell opening quotes from closing quotes and apostrophes from quotation marks, avoiding false replacements inside code flags or technical strings.
Privacy
Everything runs locally in your browser. Nothing you paste is uploaded or stored.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are curly quotes?
Curly quotes (also called typographic quotes or smart quotes) are the directional versions of quotation marks: “ (opening), ” (closing), ‘ (opening single), ’ (closing single / apostrophe). They differ from straight quotes (", ') which are the default on keyboards and in most plain-text formats.
What is the difference between an em dash and an en dash?
An em dash (—) is the width of the letter M. It marks a break in thought — like parentheses — or replaces a colon in informal writing. Type --- to get one. An en dash (–) is the width of the letter N and is used for ranges (pages 12–24, 2020–2024) or compound modifiers. Type -- (not inside a word) to get one.
Will this break my HTML or code?
The tool replaces double hyphens only when they appear outside word boundaries (it will not convert --flag to –flag, for example). However, typographic quotes and dashes are Unicode characters that may not render correctly in all monospace/code contexts. We recommend using this tool only for prose, not code.
Why is my apostrophe not being converted?
Apostrophes in contractions (it's, don't) are handled automatically. Standalone single quotes around a word need a space before the opening quote for the tool to detect the opening context. If a quote is still being left as straight, check that there is a space or start-of-line before the opening mark.
Does this change my original text?
No — your original text in the input area is never modified. The formatted version appears separately on the right. You can copy it when ready.