FACTOID # 144: A three-minute local phone call in Ecuador costs 60 U.S. cents, 60 times as much as in Ukraine, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, or Uzbekistan.
 
 Home   Encyclopedia   Statistics   Countries A-Z   Flags   Maps   Education   Forum   FAQ   About 
 
WHAT'S NEW
RECENT ARTICLES
More Recent Articles »
 

FACTS & STATISTICS    Simple view

  1. Select countries to view: (hold down Control key and click to select several)

     

     

    Compare:

     

     

  1. Select fact or statistic: (* = graphable)

     

     

     

  2. (OPTIONAL) Compare to statistic: (both need to be graphable)

     

     

     

  3. View result as:

     

       
(OR) SEARCH ALL encyclopedia, stats & forums:   

Encyclopedia > Rich Text Format
Rich Text Format
File extension: .rtf
MIME type: text/rtf
Type code: 'RTF '
Uniform Type Identifier: public.rtf
Magic: {rtf
Developed by: Microsoft
Type of format: document file format

The Rich Text Format (often abbreviated to RTF) is a proprietary document file format developed by Microsoft in 1987 for cross-platform document interchange. Most word processors are able to read and write RTF documents. Image File history File links Rtf_icon. ... A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to show its format. ... Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support: text in character sets other than US-ASCII; non-text attachments; multi-part message bodies; and header information in non-ASCII character sets. ... A type code is a mechanism used in pre-Mac OS X versions of the Macintosh operating system to denote a files format, in a manner similar to file extensions in other operating systems. ... A Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) is a string that uniquely identifies the type of a class of items. ... In computer programming, a magic number is a constant used to identify the file or data type employed. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... A document file format is a text or binary file format for storing documents on a storage media, especially for use by computers. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... A document file format is a text or binary file format for storing documents on a storage media, especially for use by computers. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... A word processor (also more formally known as a document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of viewable or printed material. ...


It should not be confused with enriched text which is a completely different specification. Enriched text is a formatted text format for e-mail, defined by the IETF and associated with the text/enriched MIME type. ...

Contents

Sample RTF document

As an example, the following RTF code:

 {rtf1ansi{fonttblf0fswiss Helvetica;}f0pard This is some {b bold} text.par } 

would be rendered like this when read by an appropriate word processor:


This is some bold text.

A backslash () starts an RTF control code. The par control code indicates the end of a paragraph, and b switches to a bold typeface. Brackets ({ and }) define a group; the example uses a group to limit the scope of the b control code. Everything else will be treated as clear text, or the text to be formatted. A valid RTF document is a group starting with the rtf control code. First introduced in 1960 by Bob Bemer, the backslash, , is a typographical mark (glyph) used chiefly in computing. ... For technical reasons, :) and some similar combinations starting with : redirect here. ...


Character encoding

RTF is a 7-bit format. That would limit it to ASCII, but RTF can encode characters beyond ASCII by escape sequences. The character escapes are of two types: code page escapes and Unicode escapes. In a code page escape, two hexadecimal digits following an apostrophe are used for denoting a character taken from a Windows code page. For example, if control codes specifying Windows-1256 are present, the sequence 'c8 will encode the Arabic letter beh (ب). This article is about the unit of information. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Code page is the traditional IBM term used for a specific character encoding table: a mapping in which a sequence of bits, usually a single octet representing integer values 0 through 255, is associated with a specific character. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal, base-16, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16, usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F, or a–f. ... Windows-1256 is a codepage used to write Arabic (and possibly some other languages that use Arabic script) under Microsoft Windows. ...


If a Unicode escape is required, the control word u is used, followed by a 16-bit signed decimal integer giving the Unicode codepoint number. For the benefit of programs without Unicode support, this must be followed by the nearest representation of this character in the specified code page. For example, u1576? would give the Arabic letter beh, specifying that older programs which do not have Unicode support should render it as a question mark instead.


The control word uc0 can be used to indicate that subsequent Unicode escape sequences within the current group do not specify a substitution character.


Human readability

Unlike most word processing formats, good RTF code can be made human-readable. That is to say that when an RTF file is opened in a text editor, the text is legible and the markup is not too distracting or counter-intuitive. The RTF files produced by most programs, such as MS Word, will contain such a large number of control codes for compatibility with older program that most file will easily be an order of magnitude larger than the raw text and very difficult to read. Formats such as MS Word's .doc and KWord's .kwd are, in contrast, binary formats with only a few scraps of legible text. Human-readable refers to a representation of information that can be naturally read by humans. ...


Nowadays, human-readable XML-based formats are becoming more common, but RTF's readability was a rare thing when it came out. Note that the XML-based OpenDocument format is often not immediately human-readable due to its being a bundle of several different files within a ZIP archive. OpenDocument or ODF, short for the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications, is a document file format used for describing electronic documents such as memos, reports, books, spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. ...


Common implementations

Most word processing software implementations support RTF format import and export, often making it a "common" format between otherwise incompatible word processing software.


The WordPad editor in Microsoft Windows creates RTF files by default. It once defaulted to the Microsoft Word 6.0 file format, but write support for Word documents was dropped in a security update. WordPad is a simple word processor that is included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 upwards. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... Microsoft Office Word is Microsofts flagship word processing software. ...


The free and open-source word processors AbiWord and OpenOffice.org can view and edit RTF files. Clockwise from top: The logo of the GNU Project (the GNU head), the Linux kernel mascot Tux the Penguin, and the FreeBSD daemon Free software is a term coined by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation[1] to refer to software that can be used, studied, and modified without... Open source software is an antonym for closed source software and refers to any computer software whose source code is available under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. ... AbiWord is a Free Software word processor licensed under the GNU General Public License. ... OpenOffice. ...


The default editor for Mac OS X, TextEdit, can also view and edit RTF files. Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... A screenshot of Apples TextEdit. ...


Since RTF files are text files, it’s easy to produce RTF with many programming languages, like Ruby, Perl, Java, C++, Pascal, COBOL, or Lisp. Perl, for example, has the RTF::Writer module for this Ruby is a reflective, dynamic, object-oriented programming language. ... Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ... Java is an object-oriented applications programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ... C++ (pronounced see plus plus, IPA: ) is a general-purpose, high-level programming language with low-level facilities. ... Pascal is an imperative computer programming language, developed in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a language particularly suitable for structured programming. ... COBOL is a third-generation programming language, and one of the oldest programming languages still in active use. ... Lisp is a family of computer programming languages with a long history and a distinctive fully-parenthesized syntax. ...


See also

Rich Text Format Directory, also known as RTFD (due to its extension), is the primary document format of TextEdit, an application native to NeXTSTEP and Mac OS X which has also been ported to other versions of Unix. ... Enriched text is a formatted text format for e-mail, defined by the IETF and associated with the text/enriched MIME type. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Comparison of document markup languages. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of document markup languages. ... An IBM System 360/20, with IBM 2560 Multi-Function Card Machine Revisable-Form Text (abrieviated RFT or RFT-DCA) is part of IBMs Document Content Architecture (DCA). ... TNEF is a proprietary format of attachment used by Microsoft Outlook. ... Microsoft Outlook or Outlook (full name Microsoft Office Outlook since Outlook 2003) is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite. ...

External links

  • RTF 1.9 specification (January 2007) (from Microsoft)
  • RTF 1.8 specification (April 2004) (from Microsoft)
  • RTF 1.7 specification (August 2001) (from Microsoft)
  • RTF 1.6 specification (May 1999) (from Microsoft)
  • RTF 1.5 specification (April 1997) (from biblioscape.com)
  • RTF 1.0, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5 and 1.7 specifications (from the RTF Tools open source project)
  • RTF 1.0 specification (June 1992) (from the latex2rtf open source project)
  • UnRTF - open-source program to convert RTF into HTML, LaTeX, PostScript, and other formats
  • [Ruby RFT] project for creating Rich Text content via Ruby

  Results from FactBites:
 
Rich Text Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (385 words)
The Rich Text Format (often abbreviated to RTF) is a document file format that has been continually developed by Microsoft since 1987 for cross-platform document interchange.
Unlike most of the word processing formats, RTF is human-readable.
It defaulted to the Microsoft Word 6.0 file format, but write support for Word documents was dropped in a security update by default.
Rich Text Format - definition of Rich Text Format in Encyclopedia (251 words)
RTF (usually referred to as such) stands for Rich Text Format, a document file format developed by Microsoft at least as early as 1987 for cross-platform document interchange that most text processing programs are able to read and write.
RTF uses the ANSI, PC-8, Macintosh, or IBM® PC character set to control the representation and formatting of a document, both on the screen and in print.
The RTF format is the default rich text format for Mac OS X's default editor TextEdit and Microsoft Windows' default editor WordPad.
  More results at FactBites »


 

COMMENTARY     


Share your thoughts, questions and commentary here
Your name
Your comments
Please enter the 5-letter protection code

Want to know more?
Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 


Lesson Plans | Student Area | Student FAQ | Reviews | Press Releases |  Feeds | Contact
The Wikipedia article included on this page is licensed under the GFDL.
Images may be subject to relevant owners' copyright.
All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003-5. All Rights Reserved.
Usage implies agreement with terms.