Select the text objects or characters you want to refine using the Type tool.
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Learn the basics
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Modify colors
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Design with text
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Add and manage text
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Work with fonts and scripts
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Edit and format text
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Use special characters and glyphs
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Use Smart Punctuation and set quote styles
Last updated on
Oct 22, 2026
Use Smart Punctuation to replace keyboard characters with typographic alternatives and configure quote styles.
Use Smart Punctuation to replace standard keyboard punctuation with professional typographic characters—like curly quotes, em dashes, and ligatures. You can apply it to selected text or specific character ranges.
Smart Punctuation differs from OpenType formatting. Smart Punctuation processes existing keyboard characters, while OpenType features provide access to alternate glyphs (additional character designs) built into fonts.
Replace keyboard punctuation with typographic characters
Select Type > Smart Punctuation.
In the Smart Punctuation dialog, select the replacement options you want to apply: ff, fi, ffi Ligatures for common ligatures, ff, fl, ffl Ligatures for additional ligatures, Smart Quotes for curly quotation marks, Smart Spaces to remove extra spaces after periods, En, Em Dashes to convert double and triple hyphens, Ellipses to replace three periods, or Expert Fractions to format fractions.
Select OK to apply the changes to your selected text.
Tip
For more control over ligatures and fractions in OpenType fonts, use the OpenType panel instead of Smart Punctuation. The OpenType panel provides additional typographic refinements not available through Smart Punctuation.
Configure default quote styles
Select File > Document Setup.
Select Use Typographer's Quotes to enable curly quotes, or deselect it to use straight quotes for all new text.
If you enabled typographer's quotes, choose your language from the language dropdown menu.
Select your preferred quotation mark styles from the Double Quotes dropdown for opening and closing double quotes, and from the Single Quotes dropdown for apostrophes and single quotes.
Select OK to save your quote style preferences.
These quote style settings apply to all new text you create in the document. Existing text retains its current formatting unless you apply Smart Punctuation or manually change the characters.
Note
Typographer's quotes (curly quotes) integrate with the natural curves of most fonts and are traditionally used for quotations and possessives. Straight quotes serve as abbreviations for feet and inches in technical contexts.
For working with OpenType fonts, learn about OpenType features for advanced typographic control. To insert specific quotation marks or punctuation characters manually, explore special character insertion options.
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