The MIME type text/rtf is used to denote the presence of Rich Text Format text files. The category for this MIME type is "text".

The Rich Text Format files carry the extension RTF. It is a comparatively older document format that was developed by Microsoft in order to make cross-platform document interchanges easier. Developed in 1987, this format is quite common even though it is not in popular use any longer. Documents in this format can be read and created by most modern word processors. RTF is different from the enriched text and also from rich text. RTF was actually derived from rich text.

The syntax of the format was influenced by the TeX typesetting language. The reader and writer for RTF were first shipped with Word 3.0 for Macintosh. The RTF thus shipped was of the 1.0 RTF specification. Since Word for Windows emerged after this, RTF has been supported by every version of Microsoft Word for Windows so far. Later on, as formats started getting more complex, readers and writers were developed to translate RTF to DOC and vice-versa. Microsoft has declared that the 2010 version of Word will not enhance any of the RTF features and saving in RTF will result in degradation of the document.