# Markdown: Support for "smart" typography

**URL:** <https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99>\
**Category:** Feature requests\
**Created:** [May 1, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99 "2019-05-01T16:50:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ErichDonGubler](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/zola.discourse.group/erichdongubler/32/50_2.png) [@ErichDonGubler](https://zola.discourse.group/u/ErichDonGubler)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99/1 "2019-05-01T16:50:33Z")

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One of the features I thought would be interesting from using Jekyll is “smart” typography, which comes from the SmartyPants spec implemented as an [extension in the RedCarpet markdown parser](https://github.com/vmg/redcarpet#also-now-our-pants-are-much-smarter), as noted in [Jekyll docs](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/configuration/markdown/#redcarpet).

To give some examples, that would mean turning text like this:

```auto
"some curly quotes" 'like this' -- they're pretty awesome --- yo

```

…into this:

> “some curly quotes” ‘like this’ – they’re pretty awesome — yo

Discourse (this forum) actually does this by default too – see the en-dashes I’m using right now? 🙂

By no means do I think this should be a default, but it would be interesting to add – I love {en,em}-dashes in particular. 🙂

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**Author:** ![keats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@keats](https://zola.discourse.group/u/keats)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99/2 "2019-05-01T21:26:54Z")

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I think it would have to be an option of pulldown-cmark no? Hugo has smartypants support through their markdown renderer ([https://gohugo.io/getting-started/configuration/#blackfriday-options](https://gohugo.io/getting-started/configuration/#blackfriday-options)) and it seems like having one implementation beats everyone re-implementing it.

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**Author:** ![ErichDonGubler](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/zola.discourse.group/erichdongubler/32/50_2.png) [@ErichDonGubler](https://zola.discourse.group/u/ErichDonGubler)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99/3 "2019-05-02T15:59:07Z")

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That’s true that it’s really the parser that should support this – there would probably still need to be an option in Zola proper for enabling/disabling that support, though. I’m guessing that you’re open to adding it if and when support actually happens?

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**Author:** ![keats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@keats](https://zola.discourse.group/u/keats)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99/4 "2019-05-02T18:39:58Z")

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Yep!

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**Author:** ![ErichDonGubler](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/zola.discourse.group/erichdongubler/32/50_2.png) [@ErichDonGubler](https://zola.discourse.group/u/ErichDonGubler)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/markdown-support-for-smart-typography/99/5 "2019-05-02T19:25:52Z")

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I have added details from here to an [issue](https://github.com/raphlinus/pulldown-cmark/issues/119) in `pulldown-cmark` upstream. I hope that the ping gets some more attention to it. 🙂