Hi,
In
this thread it was suggested the use of custom entities (like ’ or — ) as a possible typographic tool. I would like to test it and see if (and how) different ePUB readers support it. Basically, the trick is adding entity definitions to the DOCTYPE line.
In this file I've used &loquo; and &roquo; for outer quotes and &liquo; and &riquo; for inner quotes, as well as ≈ for apostrophes. Chapter 1 has the definitions in-line, while Chapter 2 uses an external file (this would be preferable, since it allows changing all chapters in a single place).
I've tried with Calibre, and Chapter 1 (internal) works, but Chapter 2 (external) doesn't. Besides, both chapters show some garbage at the top. Could you try with other readers and maybe test other possible solutions?