Why choose RTF over DOCX?

Compatibility. RTF is a much older, simpler format that almost every word processor can open, which makes it a safe choice when you do not know what software the recipient has. If you know they have Word, .docx keeps more structure.

Headings, bold and italic, lists and paragraph structure. RTF has no concept of a table of contents or of modern layout, so the result is simpler than the same text as .docx.

Does formatting survive when I paste from a website?

Yes. Headings, bold and italic, lists, tables and links all come across as themselves. What gets dropped is the site's own styling — its fonts, colours, classes and scripts — which the document formats could not carry anyway, and which is where pasted content usually goes wrong.

How much text can I paste?

Up to 25 MB, which is far more than any realistic document — roughly four million words. The editor shows the size as you type and tells you before you hit the limit.

Does my text get uploaded?

No. The document is built by JavaScript running in this tab, and nothing is sent anywhere. You can test that by disconnecting from the internet before you press convert — it still works.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no sign-up, no limit on how many documents you make, and no watermark on the output.

DocumentLayout rebuiltRuns in your browser

Text to RTF

Paste or type text and get an RTF file. RTF is worth choosing when you do not know what the person on the other end has — it opens in Word, Pages, LibreOffice, WordPad and a long tail of software that predates all of them.

On your deviceNever uploadedGone when you close the tabHow this works

DocumentName

0 words0 B

You will get

Rich Text Format

document.rtf

On your deviceNever uploadedGone when you close the tabHow this works

How to use it

1
Type or paste your text
Paste from anywhere and the formatting comes with it.
2
Format it however you like
Headings, bold, italic, underline and strikethrough, bullet and numbered lists, quotes, code blocks, tables and links — applied straight to the text on screen. There is no markup to learn and no preview to switch to: what you are looking at is the document.
3
Create the RTF
Press Create RTF and the file downloads, ready to open and edit.

When this is the right tool

When compatibility matters more than fidelity. RTF is the format to send someone whose software you cannot ask about — it has been readable by essentially every word processor for decades.

If you know the recipient has Word or Google Docs, .docx is the better choice: it keeps heading styles as styles and supports structure RTF simply has no way to express.

What the formatting actually does

Each control marks up real structure, and the converter carries that into the RTF document. A heading becomes a heading in the file's outline, not just larger text; a bullet list becomes a real list; a table becomes a table with cells.

That matters more than it sounds. Structure is what lets a screen reader announce your headings, a PDF reader build a navigation pane, and Word show an outline you can collapse. Text that has merely been made bigger and bolder has none of that.

Headings: Three levels, which is as deep as most documents need. They become the document's outline.
Lists: Bulleted and numbered. Numbered lists renumber themselves as you add and remove items.
Emphasis: Bold, italic, underline and strikethrough, applied to whatever you have selected.
Blocks: Quotes, fenced code blocks, tables and horizontal rules, all rendered as their real equivalents.

What it will not do

There is no control for typeface, text size or colour on individual words, and that is deliberate rather than unfinished. Those would be per-word styling, and the honest position is that a button which silently does nothing is worse than one that is not there.

Document-level choices — page size and the typeface for the whole document — are in the settings panel beside the editor, because they apply to the finished file rather than to a selection.

Images cannot be placed from the editor. Everything here is text you typed or pasted, which is also why nothing has to be uploaded.

About these formats

Accepts

HyperText Markup Language

The markup language of the web.

Extensions: .html, .htm, .xhtml
MIME type: text/html
Best for: Web pages · Email templates · Rich exports
Compatibility: Every browser.

Write or paste plain text or Markdown — Markdown headings, lists, bold and links are rendered. Nothing is uploaded; the document is built in your browser.

Good to know