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RTF to Text Converter

Strip RTF back to readable text, without the font tables and control words.

Drop an .rtf file here, or click to choose one

Converted on your device — the file is never uploaded

Text

Quick Tool Overview

The RTF to Text Converter follows the format’s own structure — groups, control words and skippable destinations — so font tables and stylesheets disappear and escaped characters come through correctly.

What it does
Converts RTF markup to plain text
You give it
RTF text or an .rtf file
You get back
Readable plain text
Best for
WordPad files and legacy database fields
Converters Free, unlimited use No sign-up Runs in your browser

About the RTF to Text Converter

RTF is what WordPad saves, what old systems export, and what plenty of database columns still hold. Open one in a text editor and the content is buried under control words, font tables, colour tables and stylesheets — {\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl… — with the actual words scattered between them.

Paste the RTF and get the text. The parser follows the format’s own structure: groups in braces, control words with their parameters, and the destinations — font tables, colour tables, stylesheets, embedded pictures, generator notes — that a reader is meant to skip entirely. Escaped characters come through properly, so \’a3 becomes £ and \u233 becomes é, paragraph breaks become line breaks, and table cells become tabs.

Key features of the RTF to Text Converter

Destinations skipped

Font tables, colour tables, stylesheets and pictures are dropped whole.

Escapes decoded

\'a3 becomes £ and \u233 becomes é, fallback characters removed.

Structure kept

Paragraphs become line breaks and table cells become tabs.

Tab cleanup

Turn tabs into spaces when you need flat text.

No library

The parser is part of the page, so it works offline.

How to use the RTF to Text Converter

  1. 1

    Paste or drop the RTF

    From WordPad, an export or a database field.

  2. 2

    Read the text

    Markup, tables and pictures are skipped.

  3. 3

    Tidy the tabs if you like

    Turn tab characters into spaces.

  4. 4

    Copy or download

    Plain text, ready to use.

Frequently asked questions

That is the font table, colour table and stylesheet — the parts that describe how the document looks. They are groups a reader should skip, and they are skipped here.

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