Text::Typography 0.01

Text::Typography can markup ASCII text with correct typography for HTML.

SYNOPSIS

use Text::Typography qw(typography);

print typography($text);

This module is a thin wrapper for John Grubers SmartyPants plugin for various CMSs.

SmartyPants is a web publishing utility that translates plain ASCII punctuation characters into "smart" typographic punctuation HTML entities. SmartyPants can perform the following transformations:

Straight quotes ( " and ) into "curly" quote HTML entities
Backticks-style quotes (``like this) into "curly" quote HTML entities

Dashes (-- and ---) into en- and em-dash entities

Three consecutive dots (...) into an ellipsis entity
SmartyPants does not modify characters within < pre >, < code >, < kbd >, < script >, or < math > tag blocks. Typically, these tags are used to display text where smart quotes and other "smart punctuation" would not be appropriate, such as source code or example markup.

typography($text[, $attributes])

Returns a string marked up with the proper HTML entities for proper typography.

For fine grain control over what gets converted, use the $attributes option. The default value is 3.

The following numeric values set a group of options:

0 : do nothing
1 : set all
2 : set all, using old school en- and em- dash shortcuts (-- and ---)
3 : set all, using inverted old school en- and em- dash shortcuts (--- and --)

For even finer control, specify a string of one or more of the following characters:

q : quotes
b : backtick quotes (``double only)
B : backtick quotes (``double and `single)
d : dashes
D : old school dashes
i : inverted old school dashes
e : ellipses
w : convert " entities to " for Dreamweaver users

Backslash Escapes

If you need to use literal straight quotes (or plain hyphens and periods), SmartyPants accepts the following backslash escape sequences to force non-smart punctuation. It does so by transforming the escape sequence into a decimal-encoded HTML entity:

Escape Value Character
------ ----- ---------
\
" " "

. . .
- - -
` ` `

This is useful, for example, when you want to use straight quotes as foot and inch marks: 62" tall; a 17" iMac.

Algorithmic Shortcomings

One situation in which quotes will get curled the wrong way is when apostrophes are used at the start of leading contractions. For example:

Twas the night before Christmas.

In the case above, SmartyPants will turn the apostrophe into an opening single-quote, when in fact it should be a closing one. I dont think this problem can be solved in the general case -- every word processor Ive tried gets this wrong as well. In such cases, its best to use the proper HTML entity for closing single-quotes (’) by hand.