About Smart Quotes Fixer

Replace curly/smart quotes with straight quotes and vice versa. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Fun / Niche collection.

Use Cases

• Fix JSON parse errors caused by curly quotes from docs
• Prepare code snippets copied from blog posts or PDFs
• Normalize quotes in content before database insertion
• Convert typographic quotes for plain-text email formatting

Tips

• Batch-replace curly quotes from Word or Google Docs pastes
• Toggle between converting to straight or smart quotes
• Preview all replacements before applying the fix

Fun Facts

• Smart quotes (curly quotes) were introduced with early Macintosh typesetting in 1984; before that, typewriters only had straight quotes.
• Microsoft Word's AutoCorrect has been auto-converting straight quotes to smart quotes since Word 97, causing headaches for developers ever since.
• In JSON, smart quotes are invalid syntax and will cause parse errors, making this a common source of bugs when pasting from documents.

FAQ

What smart quotes does it fix?

Curly double quotes (“ ”), curly single quotes (‘ ’), and primes (′ ″) — all normalized to straight quotes. Word processor pastes are the #1 source.

Does it work in reverse?

Yes — toggle to convert straight quotes to smart quotes, using typographic rules (opening vs closing based on context).

What about apostrophes in contractions?

Smart apostrophes in 'don't' (U+2019) become straight (U+0027). Reverse direction keeps context — 'don't' gets an opening apostrophe correctly.

Does it affect nested quotes?

Yes — handles ''nested'' cases. For the reverse direction, the tool alternates smart-double and smart-single appropriately.