Convert an RTF to PDF that looks the same everywhere
Rich text made final, for anyone who cannot open your original.
or drop your RTF anywhere on this page
RTF → PDF
Why save an RTF as a PDF
To convert RTF to PDF, drop your .rtf file on the tool above or press Select RTF file, then press Convert to PDF and download it. Our server opens the document and saves it straight to PDF, with no step in between. The route is graded Very good, because a font we do not have is drawn in a stand-in. The download is named after your file: minutes.rtf becomes minutes.pdf.
Rich Text Format is formatted text that almost any word processor can open, so it is handy for passing a document between programs. It stays editable, though, and it shows in whatever fonts the reader's computer has. A PDF fixes the layout, looks the same on every device and resists accidental edits. That makes it the safer file for a final version: a CV, a letter, a report that has been signed off.
This rich text to PDF route needs no word processor on your computer, so it works on a borrowed or shared machine too. You can change RTF to PDF on the free plan without an account.
How to convert RTF to PDF
- 1Select or drop your RTF
Nothing uploads until you press convert.
- 2Choose your options
We show the route and its fidelity grade up front.
- 3Download your PDF
Then it is deleted after 24 hours, automatically.
Formatted text that almost anything can open. The lowest common denominator with bold.
A page, frozen. Looks identical everywhere, resists editing everywhere.
Fonts we do not have are drawn in a stand-in of the same width where there is one, such as Carlito for Calibri. A font with no stand-in is replaced by another.
How the conversion works
We wrote RTF test files with the features people rely on, ran them through this RTF to PDF converter and checked every page of the results. This came through:
- The page size saved in the file: an A4 document gave A4 pages and a US Letter one gave US Letter pages.
- Bold, italics, underlining, colours, bullet lists and tables with their borders.
- Pictures stored in the RTF, headers, footers with the page numbers counted, and footnotes at the foot of the page.
- Words you can still search and copy, because the text stays text.
- Headings set with a heading style, which become bookmarks: the clickable outline a PDF reader shows beside the pages.
- Web links, and links to a bookmark later in the document, which you can still click.
Comments and tracked changes in an RTF
Reviewers' comments do not appear in the PDF. Tracked changes that were never accepted do: removed words show struck through and added words underlined, both in colour, with a bar beside them in the margin. Settle them in your word processor first if the PDF is meant to be clean.
Fonts the PDF is drawn with
An RTF names its fonts, and the PDF is drawn with the fonts on our server. The common ones have free stand-ins built to the same letter widths, which keeps every line the same length. The rest get a general font, and lines can then break in new places.
| Font named in your RTF | Font in the PDF |
|---|---|
| Calibri or Cambria | Carlito or Caladea, the same widths |
| Arial, Times New Roman or Courier New | Liberation Sans, Serif or Mono, the same widths |
| Helvetica | Nimbus Sans, the same widths |
| Aptos | Liberation Sans, a similar plain font with different widths |
| Others, such as Georgia, Verdana, Segoe UI or Consolas | DejaVu Serif, a plain serif font |
Letters with accents, Greek and Cyrillic came out right in our tests. Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters did not: each printed as an empty box, as our server has no font that covers them.
When you still need to edit
A PDF is for reading, so keep the .rtf as your working copy and convert it again after each change. To carry on in Word, convert RTF to Word: it is one step too, graded Exact, and gives a .docx you can edit.
If the PDF is all you have, convert PDF to RTF to get an editable file back. That route rebuilds the document from what the PDF shows, so it is graded Very good rather than Exact: check margins and line breaks before you rely on it.
Other documents have their own converters: Word to PDF for a .docx, convert ODT to PDF for a LibreOffice file and Text to PDF for plain .txt notes. If a PDF full of pictures is too big to email, the PDF size reducer makes its pictures smaller.
Questions people ask
How do I convert an RTF file to PDF?
Press Select RTF file, or drop the .rtf anywhere on this page, then press Convert to PDF and download the PDF. The free plan converts three files a day, up to 25 MB each and one at a time, with no account. Both files are deleted from our server after 24 hours.
What is an RTF file?
RTF stands for Rich Text Format: text with its formatting, such as fonts, bold, colours, tables and pictures, saved in a form that almost any word processor can open. Unlike a PDF, it is meant to be edited, and it shows in whatever fonts the reader's computer has.
Will my fonts and formatting stay the same?
The formatting does: in our tests the page size, bold, colours, tables, pictures, headers and footers all came through. Calibri, Cambria, Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New and Helvetica are swapped for stand-ins of the same widths. Other fonts are drawn in DejaVu Serif, or Liberation Sans for Aptos, so check the PDF if the look matters.
Can I edit the PDF afterwards?
Not easily, as a PDF is made to resist editing. You can still search its text and copy from it. To change the wording, edit the original .rtf and convert it again, or turn the RTF into a Word document first with RTF to Word.
Do the links in my RTF still work in the PDF?
Yes. In our test, a link to a website and a link to a bookmark further down the document were both clickable in the PDF, and each footnote number jumped to its footnote.
Is converting RTF to PDF free?
Yes. Up to 25 MB and three conversions a day are free, with no account. Pro and Business lift the file limit to 100 MB and remove the daily cap.
What happens to my files?
Both your RTF and the PDF we produce are deleted 24 hours after each conversion, automatically. Try again and Continue to another tool start a new conversion, with its own 24 hours. Nothing is used for training and no human looks at your documents.
Will the PDF look exactly like the RTF?
This pair grades as “Very good”. We show the exact route and that grade before you convert, so there are no surprises about what survives the trip.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Nothing to install. Pick or drop a file here, it's converted on our servers, and you download the result.
How large can my file be?
25 MB on the free plan, and 100 MB on Pro and Business.
Can I convert several files at once?
On Pro and Business, yes: add up to 100 files before converting. The free plan converts one file at a time.
Related conversions
DOCX
PDFWord to PDF
Freeze a Word document so it looks identical on every machine that opens it.
PPTXPDFPowerPoint to PDF
Send the deck as something nobody can accidentally re-animate.
XLSXPDFExcel to PDF
Send a workbook nobody can accidentally retype, every visible sheet in order.
JPEGPDFJPG to PDF
Wrap photos into a PDF page, the usual way to send a photographed document.
PNGPDFPNG to PDF
Screenshots into a single PDF page, at full resolution.
HTMLPDFHTML to PDF
A web page, printed to a page, without the print dialog.