Smart Quotes & Dashes Converter

Word processors turn typed quotes into curly “smart” quotes, but code editors, plain-text tools and many web forms leave them straight. This converter works in both directions: it gives straight text proper typographic quotes, apostrophes and dashes, or strips curly quotes back to plain ASCII for code, CSV files and systems that garble them. Seven national quote styles are included, from English “…” to German „…“, French « … » and Japanese 「…」.

How to use this tool

1. Paste your text.
2. Choose curly quotes or straight quotes.
3. For curly quotes, pick the quote style of the language you are writing in.
4. Choose how dashes and three dots should be converted, then copy the result.

Formula

A straight quote opens after the start of a line, a space, a bracket or a dash, and closes everywhere else

This is the rule SmartyPants and word processors use; a quote with spaces on both sides closes the quote that is open. A single quote between two letters is always an apostrophe (don’t, l’été), as is one before two digits (’90s) and before a few common short forms (’tis, ’em, rock ’n’ roll). Apostrophes stay ’ in every style. Dashes follow the option you choose: “--” to an em dash, or the LaTeX convention of “--” for an en dash and “---” for an em dash. The French style puts a no-break space inside « » so the marks never end up alone at the end of a line.

Example

Converted to English curly quotes, "Hello," she said. 'It's the '90s -- isn't it...' becomes “Hello,” she said. ‘It’s the ’90s — isn’t it…’: 4 quote marks, 3 apostrophes, 1 dash and 1 ellipsis are changed. Converting the result back to straight quotes restores the original text.