Corrupt an RTF File Online
Corrupt a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file online for free. Destroys the \rtf1 header and control-word structure so word processors cannot render it.
- No upload
- No size limit
- No sign-up
Corrupt your RTF file
Tuned for .rtf, and works with every other format too.
Why RTF files are hard to corrupt properly
RTF is a plain-text format with a strict control-word grammar wrapped in nested braces. Word processors are forgiving about unknown control words, so scattered damage often still renders. What they cannot survive is a broken header and unbalanced group structure.
What this tool destroys
- The \rtf1 header. The opening
{\rtf1declaration is destroyed, so the file is no longer identified as RTF. - The font and colour tables. The
\fonttbland colour table groups that every subsequent control word refers to are overwritten. - Brace balance. Binary noise injected through the body breaks the nesting of groups, which RTF parsers cannot recover from.
- Encoding validity. Invalid byte sequences make the file fail even a permissive text read.
What you will see afterwards
| Application | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | Opens as raw garbage text or refuses the file as an invalid format. |
| WordPad | "WordPad cannot open this file" or displays unreadable control codes. |
| TextEdit on macOS | Falls back to showing the raw markup rather than formatted text. |
| Google Docs | Import fails or produces an empty document. |
Common reasons people do this
- Testing a legacy document import path that still accepts RTF.
- Checking that a rich-text editor rejects malformed input safely.
- Producing malformed RTF for a parser fuzzing corpus.
- Demonstrating format fragility in a document-handling workshop.
How to corrupt a RTF file
- Drop your .rtf file onto the box above, or click to browse.
- Leave the level on Standard unless you want partial damage (Light) or need to defeat recovery software (Heavy).
- Press Corrupt file. Processing happens on your device, so it finishes almost immediately.
- Download the result. It keeps the original filename and byte length by default.
RTF FAQ
Why does RTF sometimes still show text?
Because RTF is human-readable underneath. At Light level the markup survives well enough for a parser to limp through. Use Standard or Heavy for a file that genuinely will not render.
Is RTF handled as text or binary?
Both. The engine destroys the RTF-specific header and table structures like a binary format, then poisons the body the way it treats text.
Will formatting be recoverable?
No. The font and colour tables are destroyed, so even text that survives has no formatting information to attach to.
Does it work on RTF files containing images?
Yes. Embedded images are hex-encoded in the body and are scattered along with everything else.