Smart Quotes vs. Straight Quotes
“Smart” or curly quotation marks use directional opening and closing characters, while straight quotation marks use non-directional forms. Unicode distinguishes the directional characters, and Microsoft’s own Segoe guidance uses straight quotation marks, demonstrating that the right choice depends on environment and style rather than a universal preference.
Use the quotation-mark form required by your medium and house style; curly and straight quotes are distinct characters, not universally better and worse versions of one mark.
Key details
Important caveats
Technical Boundary
Code, data formats, software interfaces, and typography systems may impose different character requirements; preserve the characters the medium expects.
Further guidance
Character Difference
Unicode assigns separate directional quotation-mark characters for opening and closing curly forms.
Practical Application
Choose curly (smart) or straight quotation marks according to the medium, encoding requirements, and house style, and use that choice consistently.
Reader Check
Is the text prose for publication, code/plain text, a data field, or another environment where character choice affects meaning or compatibility?
Style Context
Microsoft specifies straight quotation marks in Segoe, showing that a professional house style can intentionally choose straight rather than curly marks.
Worked Example
Published prose may use “smart quotes” under a house style, while code or machine-readable text may require straight quotes. Do not automatically convert characters inside code samples.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- General Punctuation — Unicode Names List (opens in a new tab)Unicode Consortium · Unicode identities for directional quotation marks and related punctuation characters
- Quotation marks — Microsoft Style Guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · Microsoft house-style treatment of quotation marks, including its straight-quote convention for Segoe