Compress RTF files without losing formatting
Rich Text Format files are often much bigger than the document inside them. When Microsoft Word saves an RTF, it packs in a lot of data no reader ever displays: a revision code on almost every paragraph and phrase, a copy of the full Office theme, a table of hundreds of built-in styles, and a second, old-fashioned copy of every picture. A one-page letter can easily be 100 KB or more. This compressor strips that hidden data out while keeping your text, fonts, colors, tables, lists, and images exactly as they were.
Everything happens in your browser. Your documents are never uploaded.
How to use it
- Choose one or more
.rtffiles, or drag them onto the box. - Leave the defaults, or turn on extra options for smaller files.
- Check each result: the new size, what was removed, and the verification badge.
- Download each file, or all of them at once as a compressed ZIP.
What gets removed
| Hidden data | What it is | Typical size |
|---|---|---|
Revision IDs (\rsid) | Codes Word uses to track which editing session changed each piece of text. They're repeated throughout the document and affect nothing you see. | 10 to 40% of the text part of a file |
| Theme data | An embedded copy of the Office theme, stored as a long block of hexadecimal | 15 to 60 KB |
| Latent styles table | Settings for hundreds of built-in styles the document never uses | 10 to 30 KB |
| Color scheme, datastore, and XML tables | Office-specific extras that other programs ignore | 1 to 10 KB |
| Legacy image copies | A second copy of each picture, in the old Windows Metafile format | Often as large as the image itself |
| Line breaks in the code | RTF readers ignore line breaks in the file, so they're removed | A few percent |
Font details like \panose classification codes and image fingerprints are removed as well. None of this affects how the document looks.
How you know nothing changed
After compressing each file, the tool extracts the full text of the original and the compressed version and compares them character by character. It also checks that every group in the file is properly closed. The green Verified badge means both checks passed. In testing, compressed documents were also rendered page by page next to their originals and came out pixel-identical, including formatting, tables, bullet lists, Unicode text, and images.
About the optional settings
- Keep one copy of each image is on by default. Word, LibreOffice, Google Docs, and modern versions of TextEdit all use the modern copy. Only very old programs needed the legacy one.
- Remove document properties deletes the author name, company, title, and editing times stored in the file. Turn it on before sharing a document outside your organization.
- Store images as binary data rewrites pictures from hexadecimal text to raw bytes, cutting their size in half. Word and LibreOffice read it correctly, but some simpler readers don't, so it's off by default.
Frequently asked questions
Will my document look different?
No. Only data that no reader displays is removed. The text check runs on every file, and the badge tells you if anything is off.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Files are read and compressed inside your browser, and nothing is sent to a server.
Why is my RTF so large in the first place?
Most of the size usually comes from pictures, which RTF stores as hexadecimal text that's twice as big as the image data, and often twice over because of the legacy copy. The rest comes from Word's revision codes and embedded theme.
My file only got a little smaller. Why?
Files saved by WordPad, TextEdit, or LibreOffice don't contain much of Word's hidden data, so there's less to remove. Turning on binary images helps if the document has pictures, and the ZIP download compresses the text part a lot further.
Can I still edit the file afterward?
Yes. It's still a normal RTF. Word may add revision codes again the next time you save it there.
Should I convert to DOCX instead?
DOCX files are compressed automatically and are usually far smaller than RTF. If everyone who needs the file uses a modern word processor, saving as DOCX is a good option. RTF is still handy when you need maximum compatibility.