Turn Rich Text Format documents from WordPad, TextEdit, Word or any editor into PDFs that look the same everywhere. Formatting, tables, bullet lists, links and pictures are kept, and you can choose the page size and margins. Files are converted on your device and never uploaded.
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No RTF file at hand?
Preview
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How to use the RTF to PDF Converter
Add your RTF files by dropping them on the box or clicking to choose them. You can also load a sample document.
Check the preview of every page that appears below the file list.
Adjust the page size, orientation and margins if you do not want the settings stored in the document.
Pick the font style: match the document fonts or force a sans-serif, serif or monospace font.
Press Download PDF, or Download all as ZIP when you converted several files.
How the conversion works
An RTF file is plain text with formatting commands. For example {\b Hello} means bold "Hello", \par ends a paragraph and \fs24 sets a 12 point font (RTF counts in half points). Measurements such as indents and margins are stored in twips: 1 twip = 1/20 point = 1/1440 inch, so a 1 inch margin is written as 1440. The converter reads these commands, rebuilds each paragraph, wraps the lines to the page width with real font metrics and writes vector text into the PDF, so the result stays sharp and searchable.
Document font
PDF font used
Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Segoe UI and other sans-serif fonts
Helvetica
Times New Roman, Georgia, Cambria, Garamond, Book Antiqua and other serif fonts
Times
Courier New, Consolas, Lucida Console and other monospaced fonts
Courier
Supported and unsupported RTF features
Supported: character formatting, colors, highlight, font sizes, alignment and justification, indents and hanging indents, spacing before and after, exact and multiple line spacing, tab stops, lists, tables, manual page breaks, PNG and JPEG pictures, hyperlinks, title and author.
Not supported: headers and footers (use the page number option instead), footnotes, comments, text boxes and drawing shapes, embedded objects, WMF and EMF pictures, and right-to-left scripts.
Page settings: "Same as document" uses the paper size and margins saved in the RTF (\paperw, \paperh, \margl and so on). Files without them get US Letter with Word's classic margins of 1 inch top and bottom and 1.25 inches left and right.
Need to convert a .docx file instead? Use Word to PDF. For plain .txt files, Text to PDF gives you more control over fonts and line numbers.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert an RTF file to PDF?
Drop the .rtf file into the converter above. It is converted immediately and a preview of every page appears. Press Download PDF to save it. Several files can be converted at once and downloaded together as a ZIP.
What formatting is kept when converting RTF to PDF?
Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text and highlight colors, font sizes, superscript and subscript, alignment, indents, paragraph and line spacing, tab stops, bullet lists, tables, page breaks, PNG and JPEG images and hyperlinks. Headers, footers, footnotes, comments and text boxes are not included.
Which fonts are used in the PDF?
The PDF uses the standard PDF fonts Helvetica, Times and Courier, which every PDF reader has built in. Each font in the RTF is matched to the closest style: Arial or Calibri become Helvetica, Times New Roman or Georgia become Times, and Courier New or Consolas become Courier. Line breaks can therefore differ slightly from your word processor.
Why do some characters show as question marks?
The standard PDF fonts only cover Western European characters (the Windows-1252 set). Letters from scripts such as Greek, Cyrillic, Chinese or Arabic and many symbols cannot be drawn with them, so they are replaced by a question mark and listed above the preview. For those documents, print to PDF from your word processor instead.
Why is an image missing from my PDF?
RTF files can store pictures as PNG, JPEG or as Windows metafiles (WMF and EMF). Browsers cannot draw metafiles, so those images are left out and the preview tells you how many. Saving the document again from a recent version of Word or WordPad usually stores pictures as PNG.
Is my document uploaded?
No. The RTF file is read, laid out and turned into a PDF by JavaScript running in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
What is an RTF file?
Rich Text Format is a document format created by Microsoft in 1987. It stores text with formatting codes such as \b for bold in plain ASCII, so almost every word processor can open it. WordPad and macOS TextEdit save RTF by default.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.