RTF to AVIF Converter
FileFlip converts RTF to AVIF entirely inside your browser, using Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert an RTF file to AVIF?#
- Drop your RTF file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to AVIF and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the AVIF file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting RTF to AVIF lose quality?#
Yes, in the sense that text stops being text. Each RTF page is rendered to pixels and handed to AVIF, so the result looks right and can no longer be selected, searched, or reflowed.
Is it safe to convert RTF files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts RTF files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What RTF to AVIF actually does to the file#
Converting RTF to AVIF runs on Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick, downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, renders each page to pixels, keeps page layout, and drops selectable text and transparency.
| Engine | Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 3 steps: RTF → HTML → PNG → AVIF |
| Downloaded to your browser | 79.9 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Text becomes pixels |
| You get back | One image per page, zipped when the source has several |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Selectable text | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Page layout | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Transparency | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- pages render at twice their point size in opaque RGB, roughly 144 DPI, with no transparency
- reflowable input is laid out on a fixed 595x842pt page at 11pt before anything else happens
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is an RTF file?#
An RTF file encodes styled text as plain ASCII, using backslash control words like \b and \par instead of binary formatting codes, a design Microsoft published in 1987 specifically so word processors that agreed on nothing else could still exchange formatted documents.
Use RTF to move styled text between word processors from different vendors or eras that don't reliably agree on any other format.
Convert RTF to DOCX or ODT once the document has landed somewhere permanent, since both produce far smaller files and support formatting features RTF was never updated to include.
What is an AVIF file?#
An AVIF file holds a still image or short animation encoded with the AV1 video codec, packaged inside a HEIF-style container that also carries HDR and wide-colour-gamut data alongside the pixels.
Use AVIF for web images where file size matters most, since it now decodes natively in every major browser and beats JPEG and WebP on compression at the same quality.
Convert AVIF to JPEG or PNG when a file is headed somewhere that still rejects it, such as an older content management system, a print workflow, or an app without AV1 decoding.
RTF to AVIF questions people ask#
Does Windows still have a built-in program that opens RTF files?
Not since Windows 11, version 24H2: Microsoft removed WordPad, the built-in RTF editor, after announcing its deprecation in 2023. Microsoft Word and LibreOffice Writer still open RTF files on Windows, and Notepad opens one too, but only as raw text with the control words visible rather than rendered formatting.
Why are RTF files so much larger than DOCX files with the same text?
RTF applies no compression at all, while DOCX is a ZIP archive that compresses its XML. RTF also stores embedded images as hexadecimal text rather than raw bytes, which roughly doubles their size again, so a document with pictures grows especially large as an RTF file.
Can I open an RTF file in a plain text editor?
Yes, an RTF file is plain ASCII, so any text editor opens it without error. What you'll see, though, is the raw backslash control words like \b and \fs24 mixed in with the text rather than bold text or a font size, since RTF was designed to be parsed by an application, not read directly by a person.
What's the difference between RTF and DOCX?
RTF is a flat, uncompressed text format Microsoft introduced in 1987 and stopped updating in 2008. DOCX is a ZIP archive of XML introduced with Word 2007, is substantially smaller for the same content, and supports every Word feature added since RTF was frozen.