RTF

RTF is a way in which a text is stored on the hard drive. The abbreviation stands for “Rich Text Format”, meaning roughly a “richly featured text format”. Rich here means: it is not only stored which letters appear in the document, but also how they should look. Bold print, italics, font size, paragraphs, and simple tables are thus preserved. Such files can be recognized by the “.rtf” ending after the file name. The format was developed starting in 1987 by Microsoft, the company behind the word processing program Word.

The lowest common denominator between word processing programs

Text programs normally store their documents in their own formats. Word uses “.docx”, other programs use something else. In the past, this regularly led to trouble. Anyone who sent a file could never be sure that the recipient would even be able to open it.

RTF was the answer to this. The format is openly documented, and any manufacturer may implement it. That is why practically every word processing program understands it, from Word to LibreOffice to the built-in tools of Windows and macOS. One can think of RTF as a common lingua franca that everyone can agree on.

A second advantage is robustness. At its core, an RTF file consists of readable characters, not impenetrable machine code. Such files survive transport through old email systems or databases better. Even in twenty years, one will still be able to decipher them, even if the original program no longer exists.

Control commands in the middle of the text

An RTF file is basically plain text with interspersed instructions. These instructions all begin with a backslash. The command “\b” turns on bold print, “\b0” turns it off again. “\par” means a new paragraph, “\fs24” sets the font size to twelve points.

If one accidentally opens an RTF file in a simple editor, one sees exactly this jumble of words and commands. The word processing program reads the commands and translates them into appearance. In the end, the reader only sees the finished document. The principle resembles what websites also do with HTML: the content and the instructions for display are located in the same file.

This simplicity has limits. RTF cannot handle complicated layouts, comment functions, or tracked changes like modern formats can. Images can be embedded, but they bloat the file considerably. Anyone who saves a sophisticated document in RTF therefore often loses some of the finer details.

Where RTF files still turn up today

In everyday life, the format is usually encountered unnoticed. The Windows editor WordPad saved in RTF by default, as did the program TextEdit on the Mac. Authorities and companies occasionally provide forms as RTF because they want to be sure that everyone can open them. Operating system clipboards also use RTF when formatted text is copied from one program to another.

In software development, RTF serves as an intermediate format. Programs that automatically generate reports or form letters often output them as RTF. The reason is practical: such files can be assembled using simple means, without having to observe the complicated requirements of modern formats.

One misunderstanding is worth clarifying. In news about artificial intelligence, “RTF” sometimes also stands for other things, such as schemas for formulating instructions to chatbots. This has nothing to do with the file format. Overall, RTF is now considered outdated: Microsoft no longer recommends it, and WordPad was removed from Windows in 2024. For exchange purposes, people now mostly use PDF or the open format ODT.