TXT — Plain Text
A .txt file is the simplest document format in existence: a sequence of characters with no styling, no fonts, no layout — just text. Because there is nothing to interpret, every computer, phone and operating system ever made can open one.
Modern text files usually use UTF-8 encoding, which covers every language and writing system.
What TXT files are used for
- Notes, logs, and configuration files
- Source data for scripts and programs
- README files and documentation
- The most future-proof archive format for pure content
Advantages
- Opens absolutely everywhere, forever
- Tiny file sizes
- Perfectly diff-able, searchable and script-friendly
- No hidden metadata or macros — nothing to exploit
Limitations
- No formatting at all: no bold, headings, images or tables
- No pagination — printing long files is unpleasant without conversion
- Encoding mismatches in old files can garble special characters
How to open a TXT file
Any text editor: Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on macOS, or editors like VS Code. Browsers open .txt files too. To turn a text file into a clean, printable document, convert it to PDF.