Rich Text Format (RTF)

A document file format.

The simplest format for a text document is 'plain-text'. This document will only contain pure text with no hidden formatting code. Any text editor can open text files.

The next up in complexity is Rich-Text format. An RTF document not only contains the text but also hidden formatting codes that describe how the text is to appear - bold/italic, font details, justification and so on.

For example if you viewed the hidden codes, a line might look like this

{\rtf1\ansi{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss Helvetica;}\f0\pard
This is some {\b bold} text.\par
}

All the bits with slashes are formatting codes.

The nice thing about RTF is that it is a public standard owned by Microsoft, so anyone creating a text editor can develop their software to read RTF formatted files.

 

Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: Rich Text Format

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

back to glossaryback to glossary