RTF is a cross-platform format for storing labeled text documents, created jointly by Microsoft and Adobe, as meta-tags for the format Word in 1982. Adobe has in 1985 continued to develop the format and created a language PostScript. The basis is a simple text format, control sequences which are not macros that are available for change, and teams with a fixed behavior.

Since 2007, Microsoft began to use a file format docx, which is created by using the Office Open XML. The format is a zip-file containing the text in the form of XML, graphics and other data that can be translated into a sequence of bits using patent-protected binary formats. At first it was assumed that this format will replace the doc, but both formats are still used today.