Info Tech Guide

Rich Text Format (RTF) is a standard formalized by Microsoft Corporation for specifying formatting of documents. RTF files are actually ASCII files with special commands to indicate formatting information, such as fonts and margins. Other document formatting languages include the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which is used to define documents on the World Wide Web, and the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), which is a more robust version of HTML.

Richard Brodie, Charles Simonyi, and David Luebbert, members of the Microsoft Word development team, developed the original RTF in the middle to late 1980s. Its syntax was influenced by the TeX typesetting language.

The first RTF reader and writer shipped in 1987 as part of Microsoft Word 3.0 for Macintosh, which implemented the RTF version 1.0 specification. All subsequent releases of Microsoft Word for the Macintosh and all versions for Windows can read and write files in RTF format.

Documents are saved in RTF (rich text format) so that you can save the text into almost all versions of any word processor and on any computer operating system. They are provided so that you can then make changes to the document content if you want to. Usually, if a document should not be changed, it is provided in PDF format.

Most word processors are able to read and write some versions of RTF. There are several different revisions of RTF specification and portability of files will depend on what version of RTF is being used. RTF specifications are changed and published with major Microsoft Word/Microsoft Office versions.

Unlike a basic text file, an RTF file can include information such as text style, size, and color. The nice thing about the RTF format is that it is a universal format, meaning it can be read by nearly all word processors.

The RTF Specification uses the ANSI, PC-8, Macintosh, and IBM PC character sets. It defines control words and symbols that serve as "common denominator" formatting commands. When saving a file in the Rich Text Format, the file is processed by an RTF writer that converts the word processor's markup to the RTF language. When being read, the control words and symbols are processed by an RTF reader that converts the RTF language into formatting for the word processor that will display the document. The Specification, a copy of which is located in the archives at the World Wide Web Consortium, is used to create an RTF reader or writer.