retext-smartypants

What is retext-smartypants?

The retext-smartypants package is a plugin for the retext ecosystem that transforms plain ASCII punctuation into typographically correct punctuation. It is useful for converting straight quotes to curly quotes, double hyphens to em dashes, and other similar transformations to improve the readability and appearance of text.

What are retext-smartypants's main functionalities?

Convert straight quotes to curly quotes

This feature converts straight quotes (" and ') to their curly counterparts (“ and ’).

const retext = require('retext');
const smartypants = require('retext-smartypants');
const report = require('vfile-reporter');

retext()
  .use(smartypants)
  .process('"Hello, world!" she said.', function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
    console.error(report(file));
  });

Convert double hyphens to em dashes

This feature converts double hyphens (--) to em dashes (—).

const retext = require('retext');
const smartypants = require('retext-smartypants');
const report = require('vfile-reporter');

retext()
  .use(smartypants)
  .process('This is an example--with an em dash.', function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
    console.error(report(file));
  });

Convert triple dots to ellipses

This feature converts triple dots (...) to ellipses (…).

const retext = require('retext');
const smartypants = require('retext-smartypants');
const report = require('vfile-reporter');

retext()
  .use(smartypants)
  .process('Wait... what?', function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
    console.error(report(file));
  });

Other packages similar to retext-smartypants

typogr

The typogr package provides similar functionality to retext-smartypants by improving the typography of text. It converts straight quotes to curly quotes, double hyphens to em dashes, and more. It is a standalone library and does not require the retext ecosystem.

smartypants

The smartypants package is a JavaScript port of the original SmartyPants Perl library. It provides similar transformations for typographic punctuation, such as converting straight quotes to curly quotes and double hyphens to em dashes. It is a standalone library and can be used independently of retext.

README

retext-smartypants

smartypants in retext.

Installation

npm:

npm install retext-smartypants

retext-smartypants is also available as an AMD, CommonJS, and globals module, uncompressed and compressed.

Usage

var retext = require('retext');
var smartypants = require('retext-smartypants');

var doc = retext().use(smartypants).process('He said, "A \'simple\' english sentence. . ."');

Yields:

He said, “A ‘simple’ english sentence…”

API

retext().use(smartypants[, options])

Replaces “dumb” punctuation marks with “smart” punctuation marks.

options

• quotes (boolean, default: true) — Converts “dumb” double and single quotes to smart double or single quotes;

• ellipses (boolean, default: true) — Converts triple dot characters (with or without spaces between) into a single unicode ellipsis character;

• backticks (boolean or 'all', default: true) — When true, converts double back-ticks into an opening double quote, and double “dumb” single quotes into a closing double quote; When 'all': does the preceding, and converts single back-ticks into an opening single quote, and a “dumb” single quote into a closing single quote.

  Note! Quotes can not be true when backticks is 'all';

• dashes (boolean or 'oldschool', 'inverted', default: true) — When true, converts two dashes into an em-dash character; When 'oldschool', converts two dashes into an en-dash, and three dashes into an em-dash; When 'inverted', converts two dashes into an em-dash, and three dashes into an en-dash.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer