Typography Checker

What Micro-Typography Is and Why It Matters

Micro-typography is the layer of type below the letterform: the quotes, dashes, spaces, and punctuation that hold prose together. Macro-typography decides which font and what size. Micro- typography decides whether a quotation opens and closes correctly, whether a dash interrupts cleanly, and whether two spaces survive a copy-paste. The Butterick's Practical Typography guide calls straight quotes the most common typographic error on the web, and the rest of the list is not far behind.

Most readers will not name what bothers them, but they notice the sum: a page full of straight quotes and double spaces reads as unpolished, while a page with clean punctuation reads as finished. For a brand, the difference is the difference between typeset copy and a document that never left the word processor.

The checks here are deliberately mechanical. They do not judge taste, and they do not rewrite. Each rule reports a fact the browser can verify: a straight quote where a curly one belongs, a hyphen where a dash reads better, a space where the next character should touch. That is what makes a checker of this kind useful on a deadline. You paste the final draft, scan the flagged lines, and fix only what your style guide says matters.

The Six Rules This Checker Applies

Straight quotes in prose

The keyboard's vertical quotation marks should become curly quotes in published text. This is the highest-volume finding and the one that signals careless publishing fastest.

Double spaces between words

Two spaces after a period was a typewriter habit. On the web it renders as an uneven gap, and it survives every copy-paste from Word.

Hyphens where a dash belongs

A single hyphen joins words. An em dash sets off a clause, and a spaced en dash does the same in some styles. A hyphen pressed twice is a typewriter artifact with no typographic purpose.

Double punctuation

One terminal mark per sentence. Two question marks or a period followed by a comma are mechanical errors that a quick scan catches.

French spacing before colons

A space before a colon or semicolon is correct in French and incorrect in English. The checker surfaces it so the choice is deliberate, not accidental.

Three dots instead of an ellipsis

The ellipsis character is a single glyph. Three periods typed by hand render inconsistently and can break line breaking.

How to Use This Checker

1. Paste the text you want to check. The load-sample button drops in a passage that breaks every rule, so you can see how each finding is reported before you use real content.
2. Read the summary: a green verdict when nothing is found, or an amber verdict with a count of issues and rules.
3. Work through each card. Every finding shows the surrounding context, so you can see exactly which quote or space is flagged without hunting through the paragraph.
4. Apply the fix, then re-run by pasting the corrected text. The checker re-evaluates on every change, so the green verdict is your signal that the pass is done.

Straight Quotes, Curly Quotes, and Smart Quotes

The terms overlap in everyday use. Straight quotes are the vertical marks that sit on the keyboard's shift key. Curly quotes are the typeset marks that curve toward the text they enclose. Smart quotes is the name for the automatic conversion most word processors perform, which is why pasted text from Word usually arrives with correct curly quotes while text typed directly into a plain text field arrives straight.

The fix has two steps. First, decide on a style: curly quotes everywhere is the typographic default, and some brands deliberately use straight quotes for a technical voice, which is a defensible choice as long as it is applied everywhere. Second, convert consistently. The checker only reports straight quotes in prose position, so a string of code or a measurement can keep its straight marks without tripping the rule.

Dashes: Hyphen, En Dash, em Dash

The hyphen is the shortest mark and the most overloaded. It joins compound words, splits words across lines, and gets pressed twice when a writer wants a dash and does not know how to type one. The en dash spans ranges, as in 2018 to 2020, and joins compound adjectives where one part is already hyphenated. The em dash interrupts, sets off, or appends a thought.

The common failure is the double hyphen standing in for an em dash. It is a typewriter artifact that survives into web copy because the keyboard has no dash key. The fix is either a real em dash, a spaced en dash if your style guide prefers it, or a rewritten sentence. The checker flags the double hyphen and the suspicious single hyphen, then lets your style guide make the call.

Where This Fits with the Other Tools

This checker finishes what the other tools start. The font pairings library and the pairing generator pick the faces, the typography playground sets the layout, and this checker polishes the punctuation that carries the words. The text measure tool handles line length while this one handles the character-level details. Run the accessibility checks after the style pass, and the piece is ready to publish.

FAQ

What is the difference between straight quotes and curly quotes?

Straight quotes are the vertical marks on the keyboard: ". Curly quotes are the typographic marks that open and close a quotation: " and ". In typeset text, curly quotes are the standard; straight quotes are a keyboard convenience that should be replaced before publishing. The same applies to apostrophes.

When should I use an em dash instead of a hyphen?

A hyphen joins compound words like long-form. An em dash sets off a thought: "the result was clear, or so we thought." A single hyphen where a dash belongs reads as a typo, and a double hyphen is a typewriter relic. If your style guide avoids dashes entirely, restructure the sentence instead.

Does double spacing really matter on the web?

Yes, because the web renders one space. Two spaces after a period survive in plain text and Word exports, then render as an awkward gap in HTML. It is the easiest fix in this list and the most common finding in pasted content.

What is French spacing and why does this tool flag it?

French typesetting puts a thin space before colons and semicolons. English does not. The tool flags a space before a colon or semicolon so you can decide deliberately, because mixing the two styles in one document looks sloppy.

Can this checker proofread my whole article?

It checks the mechanical layer: quotes, spacing, dashes, punctuation, ellipses. It does not check grammar, spelling, or sentence flow. Run it after editing, when the words are final, and treat its findings as a style pass rather than a rewrite.

Why does the ellipsis rule matter?

Three periods typed by hand render inconsistently across fonts and can break line breaking. The ellipsis character … is a single glyph with its own spacing. Some style guides allow three dots with spaces; the important part is choosing one form and using it everywhere.

Should I run this check on code samples and UI copy too?

Run it, but read the findings with code in mind. Straight quotes are correct in most programming languages, a double space inside a string can be intentional, and the ellipsis in a loading state is often three periods on purpose. The tool reports the mechanical fact and you decide. Reserve the strict pass for prose readers will see as finished text, and let code keep its own conventions.