RTF to Text Converter

About this tool

RTF to Text Converter on UtilityKit takes a Rich Text Format file (or a chunk of pasted RTF source) and gives you back the readable plain text. Everything runs in your browser using a small custom RTF parser — no upload, no install, no third-party server. The parser walks the RTF stream, skips groups like fonttbl, colortbl, stylesheet, info, pict, header and footer, and converts \par, \line, and \tab into the appropriate whitespace. \uNNNN Unicode escapes are decoded, and the \lquote, \rquote, \ldblquote, \rdblquote, \emdash, \endash and \bullet control words become their Unicode characters. \'XX hex escapes are treated as Latin-1, so code-page smart quotes written as \'93 or \'94 do not convert correctly. Drop a .rtf file up to 10 MB or paste the source directly, and you'll see word and character counts alongside the output. The result is UTF-8 text you can copy or download as a .txt file — ideal for stripping formatting from legacy notes or feeding RTF content into a script.

Why use it

• Browser-Only: A custom RTF parser runs entirely in your browser — your file never touches a server.

• Decodes Unicode Escapes: \uNNNN escapes (including emoji) and the smart-quote, dash and bullet control words are turned into real Unicode characters.

• Skips Bloat Sections: Font tables, color tables, stylesheets, embedded images, and revision data are stripped automatically.

• Paste-Source Mode: Convert RTF you have on your clipboard without saving it to a file first.

• Live Stats: Word and character counts appear automatically so you can verify the extracted size at a glance.

• Clean UTF-8 Output: Downloads use UTF-8 with no BOM — the safest default for cross-platform handling.

How to use

1. Drop a .rtf file onto the dropzone or click to pick one (max 10 MB).
2. Alternatively, paste raw RTF source into the text area below the dropzone.
3. Click Convert pasted RTF, or drop a file to extract its readable text.
4. Review the word and character counts and check the output for unusual encoding.
5. Click Copy text or Download .txt to save the result as UTF-8 plain text.
6. Replace the file or pasted source to run another conversion.

When it helps

• When extracting plain text from old WordPad or TextEdit notes saved as .rtf.
• When you have a chunk of RTF on your clipboard (for example, copied from a forum post) and want the readable text without the control codes.
• When migrating legacy RTF files into a modern note-taking tool that prefers Markdown or plain text.
• When preparing RTF content for a script, search index, or full-text database.
• When auditing an unfamiliar .rtf file to see what content (if any) it actually contains.
• When stripping all fonts, colors, and styles before pasting text elsewhere.

Examples

notes.rtf with bold, italics, and a font table

notes.txt with all formatting stripped — pure paragraph text only.

{\rtf1\ansi\b Hello\b0  world\par}

Hello world

Tips

• If quotes or dashes show up as blank or odd characters, the file stores them as Windows-1252 \'XX escapes, which this parser reads as Latin-1 — replace them in a text editor after converting.
• Combine with Word Counter to verify that the extracted text is at the length you expect.
• If you only need a few paragraphs, paste just that fragment into the source box — the parser handles partial RTF gracefully as long as it includes the right braces.
• Downloads use the dropped file's base name with a .txt extension; text converted from the paste box downloads as document.txt unless a file was dropped earlier.

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary

RTF (Rich Text Format)

A document format introduced by Microsoft in 1987 for cross-application formatted text. Uses ASCII control words (\par, \b, \u) to encode formatting and Unicode.

Control word

An RTF instruction starting with a backslash (e.g. \par for paragraph break, \b for bold). Parsers strip or interpret these to recover the underlying text.

Hex escape

An RTF construct of the form \'XX where XX is a two-digit hex code identifying an 8-bit code-page character. The converter decodes these to the matching Unicode characters.