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SC-Agency
SC-Agency
Inspiring
April 22, 2023
Question

Apostrophe and Quote Marks Failing in Squarespace

  • April 22, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 641 views

For some reason the apostrophe is defaulting to an incorrect one and you have to backspace, type it again adn backspace to correct it. The Squarespace Support folks are stumped.

 

Anyone have any idea what might be the issue. Squarespace uses Adobe Typkit.

 

Here is a video of the phenonmenon. This happens on different browsers with different fonts. It's not isolated to one font.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s9RG0W92iLGo_cC3cfM4XuA06IpamOF4/view?usp=sharing

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
April 22, 2023

The first one is the correct one, in typographical terms. The second is the (wrong) one that comes off the keyboard, called the 'typewriter apostrophe'. Many apps convert the wrong one to the right one, depending on context (they need to be paired in quotations, and single in don't) - it's often called 'smart quotes'  You will often see this in Word. It's a kind of autocorrect to get better typography. 

This is something Squarespace does, including the backspace switchover. There's a discussion here - interestingly from someone who wants the exact opposite to you, but as also finds that the current way it works is frustrating. https://forum.squarespace.com/topic/240935-is-there-code-to-show-curly-quotes-in-all-typography-but-only-straight-quotes-in-code-blocks/

SC-Agency
SC-AgencyAuthor
Inspiring
April 22, 2023

Thanks for some information.

 

So with the Futura-PT font I'm using on a different Sqaurespace site than shown in my previous video, the initial curly or smart apostrophe they place doesnt seem to exist as a character or glyph in the font. The result is an awkward looking italicized character substitution and a huge trailing space. See the photo attached and the second line of "Let's Get Started."

I know this isn't Squarespace Support, but they seem very inept at knowing what is causing the issue. Do you think this is

A. The result of how they are embedding Typekit or

B. A tweak they are making on the platform after embedding telling all fonts to default to curly quotes?

 

I'm guessing B but I'd love to find out how to tell them to turn it off or if there is anything I can do with CSS or something to tell the font NOT to do this. It seems like they might have been getting complaints from people who wanted curly apostrophes or quotation marks, but if the characters don't exist, that's a major issue.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
April 22, 2023

My take? It's a specific programming decision made by Squarespace (or the people who made the editor used by Squarespace). Not really on the radar of tech support. They receive the typed apostrophe and have to decide what it means. They are trying for better typography, and enabling power users to tune with backspace; the sort of "smart" thing programmers do without telling anyone. Probably same with double quotes. 

Same sort of deal as autocorrect on a phone. You can't tune it, and they keep messing with it. 

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