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Category results for: Punctuation

Em Dashes Break “Smart Quotation” Algorithms

Observation Quotation replacement algorithms routinely swap unidirectional quotation marks with directional quotation marks. (Examples below show unidirectional vs directional quotation marks in Verdana and Georgia typefaces.) The majority of these algorithms do not, however, properly handle adjacent em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens, resulting in substitution of directional quotation marks that point in the wrong direction. Documentation […]

Directional Quotation Marks, Primes, & Unidirectional Quotation Marks

DISCUSSION OF TERMINOLOGY & PRACTICE This opening guidance on setting quotation marks comes from the Chicago Manual of Style 16, which uses four different terms for the preferred character pair at the outset. 6.112 Typographer’s or “smart” quotation marks Published works should use directional (or “smart”) quotation marks, sometimes called typographer’s or “curly” quotation marks. These marks, which are available […]