RTF to Markdown Converter
Paste raw Rich Text Format source and convert it to Markdown or tab-separated text — headings, lists, links, tables, and inline emphasis handled locally in your browser.
About this tool
RTF to Markdown Converter turns pasted Rich Text Format source into clean Markdown. It is useful when you have legacy .rtf text from an editor, export, email archive, or clipboard pipeline and need something readable for docs, READMEs, notes, or AI prompts.
The converter preserves the structure Markdown can represent: bold, italic, strikethrough, headings from outline/style metadata, bullet and numbered lists, hyperlinks, Unicode escapes, superscript/subscript, and simple tables. Underlines can be kept as inline <u> HTML because Markdown has no native underline syntax, or dropped while keeping the text.
Worked example
Input RTF:
{\rtf1\ansi{\pard\outlinelevel0 Project notes\par}This is \b bold\b0 and \i italic\i0 text.\par}
Markdown output:
# Project notes
This is **bold** and *italic* text.
Options
- Headings — detect headings from
\outlinelevelNand stylesheet names likeheading 1, or turn detection off and render every paragraph as body text. - Tables — output GitHub-style Markdown pipe tables, or tab-separated rows when you need a plain-text table.
- Underline — keep underlines as
<u>text</u>HTML, or ignore underline styling. - Convert hyperlinks — when enabled, RTF
HYPERLINKfields become[text](url)links; when disabled, only the visible text remains. - Escape literal Markdown punctuation — keep stray
*,_,[, and|characters from being interpreted as Markdown.
Limits and edge cases
- Paste raw RTF source that begins with
{\rtf; this tool does not read binary Word.docor.docxfiles. - RTF supports colors, fonts, margins, revisions, images, and embedded objects. Markdown does not, so those visual/document metadata destinations are intentionally skipped.
- Complex merged or nested tables are simplified to readable rows; choose tab-separated table output if pipe tables would be misleading.
- The parser is designed for common RTF from editors and exports, not for damaged or encrypted documents.
FAQ
Can this convert a Word document?
Only if you have the document's RTF source. Save or export the Word content as Rich Text Format, then paste the text that starts with {\rtf. Binary .doc and zipped .docx files are different formats and are outside this tool's model.
What formatting is preserved?
The converter keeps formatting that maps cleanly to Markdown: headings, paragraphs, bold, italic, strikethrough, lists, simple tables, links, superscript/subscript, Unicode escapes, and optional underline HTML. Fonts, colors, margins, pictures, comments, and revision metadata are skipped because Markdown has no direct equivalent.
Why do underlines become HTML?
Markdown has no standard underline marker. Keeping underline as <u>underlined text</u> is the most portable way to preserve the signal in Markdown renderers that allow inline HTML. If you want pure Markdown text, set Underline to Drop underline markup.
Is the RTF uploaded anywhere?
No. The page runs a WebAssembly converter in your browser. The RTF text is processed locally, and you can copy or download the Markdown result without sending the content to a server.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool rtf-to-markdown '{\rtf1\ansi{\pard\outlinelevel0 Project notes\par}This is \b bold\b0 and \i italic\i0 text.\par}'New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/rtf-to-markdown/?rtf=%7B%5Crtf1%5Cansi%7B%5Cpard%5Coutlinelevel0%20Project%20notes%5Cpar%7DThis%20is%20%5Cb%20bold%5Cb0%20%20and%20%5Ci%20italic%5Ci0%20%20text.%5Cpar%7D&headings=auto&tables=markdown&underline=html&links=true&escape_markdown=trueMachine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.