Curly or straight quotes: does it really matter? The usage of both is rightfully confusing to most, so why are there two versions of quotes and does it make a difference which one you use? Straight quotes open and close a quotation in the same style, while curly quotes are curved and directional, arching towards the text they enclose. They also have distinct opening and closing versions for both single and double quotes. So why are there two quotes to begin with? Straight quotes first showed up with the use of typewriters “by replacing the curly opening and closing quotes with ambidextrous straight quotes, two slots became available for other characters” on typewriter keys. Typewriters were pressed for space and followed a strict design format—they didn’t have the luxury of space that comes with modern computer keyboards. A keyboard filled with all the modern-day keys would’ve taken up too much space, and a typewriter could already be incredibly heavy. Not to mention, if we added keys that function like the changes one can make with a shift key. Keys on a typewriter can have multiple uses. For example, instead of a “1” key, the lowercase “l” would be used. Curly quotes were used by word processors and were considered the correct choice for anything document related. They have also been referred to as “typographer’s quotes.” For the last thirty years, “smart quote” substitution has been built into all word processors, like Microsoft Word. Due to this default setting, it’s a major error to have anything you write in Microsoft Word contain straight quotes. So how does it accidentally happen? Straight keys are built into the keyboard, and sometimes transferring sections of text via copy and paste disjoints the quotes of the writing. Also, importing text into your word processor may cause it to not catch the straight quotes and lead to them needing to be changed by hand. This raises the question: if curly quotes are the correct format for all documentation, why do we still have straight quotes? Straight quotes are used in computer coding where style choices are not as strict, and are used in informal text like emails and text messages. They are also used in “Scare quotes: when using quotation marks to indicate irony or skepticism (scare quotes), straight double quotes are typically used.” Here’s the caveat, however, any use of straight or even curly quotes needs to be consistent with whatever style choice was made for the document, code, book, and so on. Keeping that in mind, the default and the preferred style for most things is curly quotes. A fun tidbit of information is that “quotation marks are an area of vast typographic diversity among other languages—both the glyphs used and how they’re spaced.” This means that the quote-curling algorithms used need to be incredibly well designed to pick up on necessary changes. Hopefully that provides some historical context and clears up any confusion surrounding curly and straight quotes. Just remember, in a pinch, go curly!

Back Matter

Source: https://practicaltypography.com/straight-and-curly-quotes.html and Gemini

1. “by replacing the curly opening and closing quotes with ambidextrous straight quotes, two slots became available for other characters” (Practical Typography)
2. “typographer’s quotes” (Gemini)
3. “Scare quotes: when using quotation marks to indicate irony or skepticism (scare quotes), straight double quotes are typically used.” (Gemini)
4. “quotation marks are an area of vast typographic diversity among other languages—both the glyphs used and how they’re spaced.” (Practical Typography)