What is the difference between text format (.txt.) and rich text format (rtf)?

Answer 1

txt is intended to be a series of plain text characters. When opened in a program like Notepad, it displays the plain characters.

RTF is kind of like HTML - it stores formatting data along with the text. If you open it in a plain-text editor, you will still see plain text, but you will also see the plain-text code that an RTF editor knows to recognize and interpret as commands, such as "make this part of the text bold."

Answer 2

.txt files are purely text, no formatting nor any other meta-information but .rtf on the other hand does allow them even though what it has is rather limiting compare to the open standards of XML.

Answer 3

in rtf you can change text size, add pictures, and other stuff. in a text file its just text.