Rich Text Format File

Microsoft introduced the Rich Text Format (RTF) in 1987 as an alternative to the standard plain text format. Over the next few decades, the company made several incremental updates to the format, such as adding embedded image support. While Microsoft stopped updating the RTF format in 2008, most word processors still support rich text files.

Since RTF is widely-supported, it is an ideal choice for those who need to transfer and edit documents across multiple operating systems and devices. For example, if you use a Windows PC at work but a Mac at home, you can save a Microsoft WordPad document as an RTF file on your work computer, email the file to yourself, and then open it in Apple TextEdit at home.

NOTE: You may encounter minor formatting discrepancies when opening an RTF file created by one program in another. These changes can be attributed to the different versions of the RTF format that various programs support.

New Rich Text Document.rtf - The default name given to new RTF files created via the Windows context menu (right click in a folder and choose New → Rich Text Document ).

You can open an RTF file with most word processing programs, including:

Most word processors can convert RTF files to other formats. For example, Microsoft WordPad can convert RTF documents to .DOCX , .ODT , and .TXT files.

Also, in the Windows and Mac versions of Microsoft Word, select File → Save As to convert RTF files to one of the following formats:

Programs that open RTF files

Updated: April 6, 2023