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§7.2.9

Quote Blocks

An inset or quoted region—block markers or plain text?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §7.2.9 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

A quoted or inset region MUST be flattened: its content is rendered as ordinary text, headings and tables included. The output MUST NOT add > block-quote markers.

When it applies

A boxed or inset region on the page renders as:

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output
## here we go
Yeah

not:

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output
>
> ## here we go
> Yeah

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

The point, in a small example

First preserve a real heading and table inside an inset, then handle a simple quotation. Flatten the visual container without flattening its internal structure. These pages are made up to isolate the rule.

01

✅ SampleConstructedThe rule applies

An inset can contain a heading and a table

In this document the printed Safety note is a level-2 section heading. The inset background does not turn its contents into a Markdown block quote. Preserve the heading, paragraph and table without > prefixes.

Source page
Quote Blocks — An inset can contain a heading and a table. Source page.
Expected output
Markdown
## Safety note

Keep dry.

<table>
<tr><th>Item</th><th>Limit</th></tr>
<tr><td>Crates</td><td>3</td></tr>
</table>
Quote Blocks · Source page

An inset can contain a heading and a table

Quote Blocks — An inset can contain a heading and a table. Source page.
02

✅ SampleConstructedThe rule applies

An inset quotation is ordinary text

Preserve the quotation marks and printed line break. The inset styling does not authorize Markdown block-quote markers.

Source page
Quote Blocks — An inset quotation is ordinary text. Source page.
Non-conforming output

What the rule rules out.

Markdown
> “Measure twice,
> cut once.”
Expected output
Markdown
“Measure twice,
cut once.”
Quote Blocks · Source page

An inset quotation is ordinary text

Quote Blocks — An inset quotation is ordinary text. Source page.

Why flatten

Block-quote markers interact badly with headings and tables that sit inside the quoted region. Most inset regions in real documents are not quotations at all — they are callouts, pull quotes or sidebars that happen to be visually offset. Flattening keeps the content addressable. The cost is losing the "this was inset" signal, and that cost is accepted.

A real quotation

In prose documents an inset block sometimes does mean someone else said this. It is flattened all the same: the words survive, and every printed character of them — quotation marks, attribution line — MUST be kept.

More

Rule id text-quote-blocks · text formatting