Add Email Quote Marks to Text

When replying to an email with inline comments, the original text should be visually quoted — typically with ">" characters at the beginning of each line. Most email clients handle this automatically, but some situations require manual quoting: plain-text email replies, copying text between conversations, or formatting quotes for mailing lists and forums.

This tool adds ">" quote markers to every line of pasted text, producing a properly quoted block ready to paste into your email client or text-based communication.

Email quoting with ">" characters is the oldest convention for indicating quoted text in electronic communication. It originated in Usenet and early email clients, and it remains the standard in plain-text email, mailing lists, and technical communication.

Common scenarios where manual quoting is needed include: composing replies in plain-text email mode, formatting messages for technical mailing lists (Linux kernel, IETF, Python dev), preparing text for insertion into forum replies, and creating properly attributed quotes when forwarding or consolidating email threads.

For teams that use plain-text email by convention (many engineering, legal, and academic teams prefer it for compatibility and simplicity), proper quoting is essential for readable threaded conversations.