Key difference: TXT stands for plain text. Plain text is text that has no formatting, including any bold, italics or different font sizes. It is the basic text format. RTF, on the other hand, can include some form of formatting. RTF stands for Rich text format. Rich text files can contain text attributes such as bold, italics and different fonts and colored text.

TXT stands for plain text. Plain text is text that has no formatting, including any bold, italics or different font sizes. It is the basic text format. It contains just the text and nothing else. The maximum amount of formatting that one can incorporate in a plain text format is line breaks and spacing between words and/or paragraphs.

RTF, on the other hand, can include some form of formatting. RTF stands for Rich text format. Rich text files can contain text attributes such as bold, italics and different fonts and colored text.

The RTF was developed by Microsoft. Like TXT, RFT can be read by any and all word processing programs. However, unlike TXT, RTF retains formatting, even if the file is opened in a different program than it was created in.

Both, TXT and RFT are compatible with any computer operating system, from Windows, to Mac to Linux. This is what makes TXT and RFT popular.

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