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RTF Markdown Swap

RTF to Markdown

Your file never leaves this device. Conversion runs in your browser. The document itself is not uploaded.

1 · Choose a RTF file

…or drop a RTF file here

.rtf · stays in this tab

2 · Convert

3 · Download

Choose a file to convert. It is not uploaded.

FAQ and format details
Why convert RTF to Markdown?

Researchers export notes as RTF from old apps. Teams find .rtf attachments in email. Markdown is where those notes become searchable and diffable. This path is better than copy-paste, which drops structure, or Word, which over-styles.

How this conversion runs

RTF subset → HTML emphasis and paragraphs → GFM. Lists in the RTF are often just indented paragraphs with a bullet character; they may become Markdown lists or stay paragraphs depending on how the RTF was written.

Keep in mind for RTF → Markdown

Word-flavored RTF with list tables may not look like lists in Markdown. Colors and fonts disappear (Markdown has neither). If the RTF is really a renamed DOCX, this parser will fail — use the Word converter.

After you have a Markdown file

Open the .md, fix lists, add headings where the original used larger fonts (those sizes were ignored). Then treat it as any other Markdown file in this suite.

Will colored RTF text stay emphasized?

Color is dropped. Only bold, italic, and underline map. If color was the only signal, put it in words.

Does TextEdit RTF work?

Usually, for the subset we parse. TextEdit can also save .rtfd bundles (folders with images); drop the .rtf inside, not the package, and images will be missing.

This pair at a glance
Accepts
.rtf
Writes
.md · text/markdown
Read fidelity
medium (RTF → HTML)
Write fidelity
high (HTML → Markdown)
Source size
Plan for files under 7.6 MB

The file is read in this tab. It is not uploaded.

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About Rich Text Format and Markdown

Source file

Rich Text Format

A text-based interchange format from Microsoft for basic rich text: fonts, colors, bold/italic, and simple pictures.

RTF was designed so Word, WordPad, TextEdit, and mail clients could exchange formatted text without the full Word binary. It is verbose (control words like \b, \i, \par) but human-inspectable. Fidelity is lower than DOCX: no modern styles, limited tables, and vendor-specific extensions.

Extensions
.rtf
MIME types
application/rtf, text/rtf
Kind
text · mixed
Category
word processing
Standard
Open format · since 1987
Comfortable size
Up to about 7.6 MB in this browser converter
Read into HTML
medium fidelity · implemented — Control-word subset: paragraphs, bold/italic/underline/strike/sub/sup, Unicode escapes, simple lists and tables, PNG/JPEG picts, and HYPERLINK fields.

What this format can hold

  • paragraphs
  • lists
  • inline formatting
  • images
  • tables

Usually dropped on the way in

  • embedded ole
  • page setup
  • complex tables
  • theme fonts

Apps that consume RTF

  • Microsoft Word (Microsoft) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS
  • WordPad (Microsoft) — creates and opens on Windows
  • TextEdit (Apple) — creates and opens on macOS
  • LibreOffice Writer (The Document Foundation) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Apple Notes (Apple) — creates and opens on macOS, iOS

Catalog notes

  • WordPad-era RTF is the target subset — not the full Word RTF dump.
  • WMF/EMF and OLE picts are skipped; PNG/JPEG picts are inlined as data URLs.

Destination file

Markdown

A lightweight plain-text syntax for structured writing that compiles to HTML. The lingua franca of README files, wikis, and note apps.

Markdown stores documents as readable plain text with a small set of punctuation conventions for headings, emphasis, lists, links, and code. GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM) adds tables, strikethrough, task lists, and fenced code blocks. Conversion through HTML is a natural fit because Markdown was designed as an HTML shorthand.

Extensions
.md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd
MIME types
text/markdown, text/x-markdown
Kind
text · utf-8
Category
markup
Standard
Open format · since 2004
Comfortable size
Up to about 3.8 MB in this browser converter
Written from HTML
high fidelity · implemented — HTML is walked into GFM with Turndown.

What this format can hold

  • headings
  • paragraphs
  • lists
  • tables
  • links
  • images
  • inline formatting
  • code blocks
  • blockquotes

Usually dropped on the way out

  • complex css layout
  • nested tables
  • custom classes

Apps that consume Markdown

  • GitHub (GitHub) — creates and opens on Web
  • Obsidian (Dynalist) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
  • VS Code (Microsoft) — creates on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Typora — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Notion — creates and opens on Web, Windows, macOS
  • Jupyter — creates and opens on Web
  • Discord — opens on Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

Catalog notes

  • Front matter (YAML between --- lines) is preserved as a prefix when converting from Markdown, and ignored when converting to Markdown.
  • Obsidian wikilinks and footnotes have no lossless HTML equivalent yet.
Other conversions

Other conversions from RTF: HTMLWordOpenDocumentPDFEPUB

Other ways to get Markdown: HTMLWordOpenDocumentPDFEPUB