# Use two hyphens to type an em-dash

**URL:** <https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/use-two-hyphens-to-type-an-em-dash/4666>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [July 2, 2020, 12:51pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/use-two-hyphens-to-type-an-em-dash/4666 "2020-07-02T12:51:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![3N4N](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/3n4n/32/2222_2.png) [@3N4N](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/3N4N)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 12:51pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/use-two-hyphens-to-type-an-em-dash/4666/1 "2020-07-02T12:51:51Z")

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With SmartyPants turned on, Jekyll converts two hyphens into an en-dash and three hyphens into an em-dash. Is there any way I could configure Jekyll to convert two hyphens into an em-dash instead? The thing is: I don’t use en-dash at all, and in manuscript format two hyphens indicate an em-dash.

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**Author:** ![mmistakes](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/mmistakes/32/2169_2.png) [@mmistakes](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/mmistakes)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/use-two-hyphens-to-type-an-em-dash/4666/2 "2020-07-02T20:31:48Z")

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Kramdown, not Jekyll handles converting `--` and `---` to en and em-dashes. Digging into Kramdown’s docs they have a `typographic_symbols` config that in theory you could use to make en-dashes output as em. I haven’t done such a thing, but it seems possible.

You’d need to set the Kramdown options in your Jekyll `_config.yml` file. They document that here:

> **[Markdown Options](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/configuration/markdown/#kramdown)**
>
> The various Markdown renderers supported by Jekyll sometimes have extra options available.

And then related Kramdown docs are here (bottom of the page):  
[https://kramdown.gettalong.org/options.html](https://kramdown.gettalong.org/options.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![3N4N](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/3n4n/32/2222_2.png) [@3N4N](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/3N4N)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 9:53am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/use-two-hyphens-to-type-an-em-dash/4666/3 "2020-07-03T09:53:57Z")

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Thanks, @mmistakes. Your pointers helped me figure out a workaround. For anyone else trying to do something similar, I’m leaving my solution here.

I added an option for `kramdown` in `_config.yml` that told the engine to use an em-dash for two hyphens. Follow the links @mmistakes provided and everything will make sense.

```auto
kramdown:
  typographic_symbols:
      ndash: —

```