The Typography Problem
By default, the iPhone keyboard utilizes a formatting engine called “Smart Punctuation.” When you type a standard, straight quotation mark (“) or a double hyphen (–), the iOS keyboard actively replaces them with curled, typographical “smart quotes” and elongated em-dashes (—). While this makes essays and emails look professionally typeset, it is an absolute nightmare for programmers, sysadmins, and anyone typing code snippets. Most programming languages and server command lines will violently reject curled quotes, causing scripts to fail instantly. You must force the keyboard to type exactly what you press.
How to Turn Off Smart Punctuation
You can permanently disable the typographical substitution engine via the General settings.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on General.
- Scroll down and tap on Keyboard.
- Under the “All Keyboards” section, locate the toggle switch labeled Smart Punctuation.
- Toggle this switch to the Off position (the green background will disappear).
Raw ASCII Output
The change takes effect instantly. The iPhone will completely terminate the background script responsible for swapping punctuation marks. Now, when you type a straight quotation mark or an apostrophe, the keyboard will output the exact, raw ASCII character you selected. You can now safely text code snippets, write server commands, and construct complex passwords without the operating system secretly altering your syntax.