It's also possible that the font you're using doesn't have curly quotes. However, on the off chance it does and Omnes (which I've never heard of) is a Windows program, you can bypass Insert Special Characters and enter the proper forms with the ALT key and the numeric keypad, thusly...

Single Quote Left = ALT+0145 = ‘
Single Quote Right = ALT + 0146 = ’
Double Quote Left = ALT+0147 = “
Double Quote Right = ALT+0148 = ”

If Omnes is a Mac program...

Single Quote Left = OPTION+] = ‘
Single Quote Right = SHIFT+OPTION+] = ’
Double Quote Left = OPTION+[ = “
Double Quote Right = SHIFT+OPTION+[ = ”

Oops! Sorry for not clarifying, Omnes is the typeface. I'm doing this in Indesign on a Mac!

Check the character chart:

http://www.dardenstudio.com/assets/pdf/dardenstudio-specimen-omnes_pro.pdf

The font doesn't have curly quotes.

In InDesign the Glyphs panel ought you to show the same.

(Checking out the PDF) Hm. Do you really get straight quotes, or were you expecting actual curled curly quotes? In this font, there are straight quotes and the "curly" ones don't curl, but they are slanted.

The font doesn't have curly quotes.

Or rather: the design of the typographer's quotes in Omnes is not curly.

Or rather: the design of the typographer's quotes in Omnes does not differ from the design of the straight quotes.

Which is the same thing as saying the font doesn't have curly quotes.

Here is the punctuation in Omnes Pro (semibold) according to their pdf.

Nick, the "typographers" quotes are different from the straight-up ones. They just are not curled.

Somewhat reminds me of editors that asked for an ampersand in italic text (properly italicized, of course) to be replaced with a real ampersand.

Okay, so our initial posts on the subject were both right.

Ok so in that case would it be most correct to leave them as slanted quotes?

In typography, what’s correct is generally considered to be ancient practice.
For quotes, that means a relationship with the comma, which did double duty in foundry type, becoming a left quote simply by rotating 180˚.
It also implies a relationship with the pen, so that in oldstyles, made with the broad pen, the comma/quote mark is more of a simple slash (see Palatino), without the blob and curl that are much more easily made with a pointed steel nib.
In a “round-nib” sans, such as Omnes, there’s not much precedent (a mix of geo and grot in the basic letter forms reinforces that idea), so the quote could go any way that a “Speedball” nib could make it, with or without blob, with or without curve. Joshua Darden made the call. But he took it a step beyond merely mimicking a pen stroke, and, as in Optima, executed a “tapered slash”, introducing a level of detail—typographic—beyond that of a the basic pen round-pen ductus that may be assumed to ground the style.

http://www.identifont.com/show?T9

Below is an interesting example of how things originate; it’s a specimen of one of the earliest sans faces, from the 1830s. The designer was experimenting with different forms of the comma (and hence quote mark) at different sizes. The smaller comma, with the fine stroke that’s at a smaller scale than any other detail of the type, has become established as the standard grot comma. And I think it’s this idea that one also sees in types such as Optima and Omnes.

Just a general, perhaps idle, question... For fonts which would be considered for straight-ahead technical or academic writing (sans or serif), is there a place for a less curly quote? This would be between the slanted slash and the traditional typographer's quotes, maybe a slash with a bend in it.

• The design of the typographer's quotes in Omnes is not curly.

So is the design of quotes in Tahoma, Verdana, Nina and Meiryo. It is interesting that in Meiryo Carter finally switched from the “double-high-reversed-9” U+201F variety to a more conventional U+201C opening quote style.

:-(
Personally I'm sad to see that switch (and I wonder who motivated it). To me "rationalist" quotes usually make more sense; in a design like this they almost always do. Maybe in this case the pairing with Japanese (a strongly chirographic script) justifies the traditional structure however.

hhp

Hrant, that change is actually a really good idea. Remember that the 'left quotes' are right quotes for German and some other languages, and are supposed to point outwards. The quote marks in Tahoma and Verdana have been a subject of complaint from German users.

Is no work-around for German possible?

hhp

• Remember that the 'left quotes' are right quotes for German and some other languages, and are supposed to point outwards. The quote marks in Tahoma and Verdana have been a subject of complaint from German users.

In Russian typography the German-style quotes are used… I don’t know if there have been many complaints from Russian users. Russian people are famous/notorious for their endurance. Oh well.

Perhaps the “wrong” left quotes could be included in an OpenType feature, such as Titling.
They look particularly good for a short centred title, on account of the symmetrical effect, whereas the correct form has an asymmetry which suits its use in running text, over more than one line.
Of course, although that would be good in America, it still wouldn’t be correct for many languages.

In my opinon, the anglocentric design of the quotes in Verdana precipitated the ruin of proper quote usage in Germany.
I know of quite a few (ortho-typographically versed) designers who prefer straight (or ‘dumb’) quotes over Verdana’s antidromic mess.

The quote marks in Tahoma and Verdana have been a subject of complaint from German users.

Which is why they were changed in Verdana Pro:

Which is why they were changed in Verdana Pro

Thank you for the update, Kent.

Florian, I don't think it's intentionally Anglo-centric. I know I'm not.

Anyway, there must be a better solution than the stupid traditional form.

hhp

I am not saying that it was intentional. I believe it was simply overlooked that other languages have other conventions, but need to make do with the same glyphs. The quotes bug in Arno was are related problem (and has also been fixed by now).

Hrant, yes it is possible to make a German language system substitution in OpenType, but support is unreliable, both in terms of software and the fact that it relies on the user applying correct language tagging to the text.

Here is a little background history on where the “curly quotes” came from:

“Inverted commas were used for opening quotes in most founts until comparatively recent years, but now a separate pattern is provided in most founts. Reversed, instead of inverted commas now accompany many founts, particularly reproductions of the late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century types, at which time they were first introduced.” Bruce Rogers, Paragraphs on Printing, New York, 1943, p. 64

BTW, many ATF fonts featured "mirrored" quotes. This might have had something to do with the pantograph.

hhp

Perhaps it was a way of showing off— “Hey look, this is a dedicated quote mark, note some high-fast rotated comma!”

And the strangeness gave it an olde-worlde quality, appropriate to types such as Benton’s Garamond.