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Document format

.rtf

Rich Text Format

RTF is a cross-platform document format that supports basic formatting like bold, italic, fonts, and colors. It's a universal middle ground between plain text and full document formats.

MIME type

application/rtf

Developer

Microsoft

Introduced

1987

Advantages

  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Basic formatting support
  • No macros — safer than DOC/DOCX
  • Human-readable markup

Limitations

  • Limited advanced formatting
  • Larger than plain text
  • No modern features like tables or charts
  • Inconsistent rendering across editors

When to use RTF

Cross-platform document sharing
Simple formatted documents
Email-safe document attachments
Clipboard data exchange

Technical details

RTF uses a tagged text format with backslash-prefixed control words. It supports fonts, colors, margins, tables, and basic formatting through a proprietary but documented specification.

Convert RTF to other formats

12 conversion options available

RTF to PDFRTF to DOCXRTF to DOCRTF to TXTRTF to XLSXRTF to XLSRTF to CSVRTF to PPTXRTF to PPTRTF to ODTRTF to HTMLRTF to EPUB

Convert to RTF from other formats

12 formats can be converted to RTF

PDF to RTFDOCX to RTFDOC to RTFTXT to RTFXLSX to RTFXLS to RTFCSV to RTFPPTX to RTFPPT to RTFODT to RTFHTML to RTFEPUB to RTF

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Other document formats

.pdfPDF

Portable Document Format

.docxDOCX

Office Open XML Document

.docDOC

Microsoft Word Document (Legacy)

.txtTXT

Plain Text File

.xlsxXLSX

Office Open XML Spreadsheet

.xlsXLS

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (Legacy)

.csvCSV

Comma-Separated Values

.pptxPPTX

Office Open XML Presentation

.pptPPT

Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation (Legacy)

.odtODT

Open Document Text

.htmlHTML

HyperText Markup Language

.epubEPUB

Electronic Publication