Brottweiler’s Logbook

Quoting text

On PC keyboards you tend to use straight quotation marks '…'/"…" for quoting text. These are used when slanted quotation marks are not available, like in programming code or configuration files. They're also much easier to type on a keyboard.

Typographical standard

For me who writes in Swedish and English, the proper way of quoting is to use slanted quotation marks. The typographical standard for Sweden and Finland is to surround the quote with the 9 type, like so ’…’/”…”. In english, you start with 6 and end with 9; ‘…’/“…”. On Linux, you can use the compose key to type these. For the Swedish and UK/US keyboard layout, the following key combos work.

US

type for
Compose"<
Compose">
Compose'<
Compose'>

Swedish/Finnish & UK

For SE/FI/UK you don't even need to use the compose key since the AltGR key exists.

type for
AltGrB
AltGrN
AltGrSHIFTB
AltGrSHIFTN

Alternatives

In Swedish, another way of quoting is to use “goose eyes”, either by typing ›…›/»…» or ›…‹/»…« but never ‹…›/«…». This seems to be an older and more confusing way of doing it rather than using slanted quotation marks, but it might be used in literature.

References

#compose-key #linux