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Here are some of the things GutenMark does when converting etexts:

• Tries to deduce the title and author.
• Identifies the Project Gutenberg "fine print" header and, by default, removes it.  At your option, it can also retain the header, but does not attempt to reformat it.  The header will appear in a fixed-width font, unlike the remainder of the text.
• Usually, a PG etext will begin with items like title pages, tables of contents, notes from the person who created the etext, and so forth.  These materials differ in format from etext to etext, and follow no obvious rules. GutenMark, tries to identify this section, which it entitles "Prefatory Materials", and performs only minor reformatting on it.
• Adds "smart quotes".
• Adds headings to chapters, sections, etc.
• Identifies paragraphs, and joins together the lines of the paragraph, so that word wrapping can be used.  Paragraphs are right justified, by default.
• Distinguishes word-wrapped areas from verse.
• PG etexts are highly inconsistent in their handling of italicized text.  Many etexts simply discard that information.  Others mark italicized text in some ways, but that marking differs from etext to etext, or even within a single text.  All PG or newsgroup italicizing styles I'm aware of are handled:
• _italicized_
• <i>italicized</i>
• /italicized/
• ~italicized~
• ~~italicized~~
• <italicized>
• *italicized*
• _/italicized/_
• _*italicized*_
• */italicized/*
• _*/italicized/*_
• /:italicized:/
• |:italicized:|
• ITALICIZED
•  GutenMark automatically italicizes certain words like "etc.", "viz.", "i.e.", and so on.  When wordlists are used, it by default italicizes all words which it can identify as being in a foreign language—i.e., a language other than the native language of the etext—with some exceptions such as proper names.
• When wordlists with built-in soft-hyphens are used (presently, only the Norwegian wordlist), text can be automatically hyphenated when (or if) HTML is converted to Postscript.  Or, post-processing software (like html2ps) may be able to use TeX hyphenation files.
•  Locates ends of sentences and colons, so that they can be followed by two spaces rather than one.  Automatically recognizes that honorifics like "Mr. Smith" aren't ends of sentences, and that  sentences may be in quotations.  It recognizes that constructs like "929 N. Durello" are not the ends of sentences.
• Handles dangling hyphens at the ends of lines, so that they are not followed by spurious spaces.
• Can usually markup centered lines.  (Though Project Gutenberg frowns on centered text, a lot of folks use it anyhow.)
• There are no practical limitations in terms of file sizes.
•  Only a minuscule subset of HTML is used, so the marked-up files should have maximum portability.
• Traditionally, PG etexts have used so-called "7-bit" ASCII, but lately a number of "8-bit" ASCII texts have shown up.  These 8-bit files more accurately represent the diacritical marks found in non-English texts. For example, 'ü' in an 8-bit etext shows up merely as 'u' in a 7-bit etext.  GutenMark is able to handle both.
• GutenMark can also, to some extent, restore the diacritical marks which are not present at all in 7-bit ASCII etexts.  For example, if we encounter the word "role" in a 7-bit English-language ASCII text, it will be converted to "rôle".
• LaTeX support has been added, providing an alternative to HTML output.