Unformat.online
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Remove Smart Quotes Online

Replace smart quotes (“” ‘’) with straight quotes instantly. Paste text from Word, Google Docs, or any word processor and get code-safe, plain-text output.

Rules:Smart QuotesConverts curly quotes (“” ‘’) to straight quotes. Always active.Non-Breaking SpacesReplaces non-breaking spaces (U+00A0) with regular spaces. Always active.Line EndingsNormalizes CRLF → LF and trims trailing whitespace per line. Always active.Removes invisible zero-width characters (U+200B, U+200C, U+200D) that silently break string comparisons.Strips the Byte Order Mark (U+FEFF) that causes “invalid character” errors in parsers and editors.Removes soft hyphens (U+00AD) from PDFs that show as garbled characters in code editors.Converts mixed tabs/spaces to a consistent indent width. Click to pick a size.Collapses all line breaks into one continuous paragraph. Great for reflowing PDF or email text.Control blank line density. Click to pick Keep 1 or Remove all.Text never leaves your browser
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Why do smart quotes cause problems?

Word processors like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Apple Pages automatically replace straight quotes (" and ') with typographically correct curly quotes. This looks better in printed documents but breaks almost everything in software.

  • Code breaks. Python, JavaScript, and most languages require straight quotes as string delimiters. Pasting code with smart quotes causes SyntaxError or unexpected token errors.
  • JSON becomes invalid. JSON requires double straight quotes for all strings. Curly double quotes are not valid JSON delimiters — parsers reject them immediately.
  • Command-line tools fail. Shell commands with smart-quoted arguments fail with “command not found” or garbled output because the shell cannot parse the Unicode quote characters as argument delimiters.
  • APIs and CSV break. Curly quotes in API request bodies and CSV field values cause parse failures when the receiving system expects ASCII quotes.
  • String comparisons fail. text === "hello" returns false when the string contains curly-quoted “hello” — they are different Unicode characters.

How Unformat converts smart quotes to straight quotes

Unformat replaces all four curly quote characters with their ASCII equivalents in a single pass:

  • “ (left double quotation mark) → "
  • ” (right double quotation mark) → "
  • ‘ (left single quotation mark) → '
  • ’ (right single quotation mark / apostrophe) → '

The stats toast shows exactly how many quotes were converted, so you can confirm the cleanup ran. All processing happens in your browser — your text never reaches a server.

How to clean your text

  1. Copy the text containing smart/curly quotes.
  2. Paste it into the text area above (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V).
  3. Smart quotes are replaced with straight quotes instantly.
  4. Click "Copy Clean Text" or press Ctrl+K to copy the result.
  5. Paste the cleaned text into your code editor, terminal, JSON file, or API tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this affect apostrophes?

Yes. The right single quotation mark (U+2019) is also used as a typographic apostrophe in words like “don’t”. Unformat replaces it with a straight apostrophe, which is correct for code and plain text. For publication-quality print text, you would keep the typographic version.

What about curly backticks?

Standard mode handles double and single curly quotes. Developer mode (enable Sanitize code in options) additionally converts curly backticks to straight backticks — useful when copying code that uses backtick template literals.

Can I fix smart quotes in Python strings specifically?

Yes — this tool handles all smart quote types regardless of language. For Python-specific context, see the dedicated /fix-smart-quotes-python page.

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