RTF is the format people reach for when they want a plain, safe document any application can open - and wrongly assume carries no metadata. It is not metadata-free. Its {\info} group stores the author, the last person who saved it, the company and the edit history as readable ASCII, and because that text is plain rather than packed in a binary container it survives copy-and-paste between applications.
Scan a Rich Text Format fileThe {\info} group is read directly - no library needed, because RTF control words are plain ASCII. It yields the author, the operator (the last person to save the file), the company and manager, the title, subject and keywords, free-text comments, and the created, modified and printed dates. A total edit-minutes value and a revision number say how much work went in and how many times it was saved, and a {\*\generator} string fingerprints the exact application and build that wrote the file.
RTF carries two person-lists that are specific to the format. The revision table names everyone who made a tracked change, and those names survive even after the changes themselves are accepted and disappear from the visible text. The protected-range user table lists the accounts granted permission to edit specific parts of a protected document - real users spelled out as domain logins or email addresses - and they stay in the file after the protection is removed.
Paths and links leak the machine that made the file. A template path stored in {\*\template} commonly reveals the author's account username in the form C:\Users\<name> and the folder layout around it. A hyperlink base and any HYPERLINK field pointing at a file:// or UNC (\\server) location expose internal infrastructure or a username. Custom user-defined properties carry the client names, project codes and classification labels an enterprise template stamps in.
Because RTF strings are stored in the document's own code page, a non-Western code page also hints at the language edition of the software that produced the file. Embedded OLE objects name their source application through an object-class string ('Package' meaning an arbitrary embedded file), and can carry their own metadata or executable content. The through-line is that all of this is plain text: the author and company ride along when the content is pasted into another program.
This is a selection. The full field manual documents the fields read from each format.
Yes, despite its reputation as a plain, safe format. RTF stores an {\info} group with the author, the last person to save it, the company, the create/modify/print dates, total edit minutes and a generator string, plus a template path, custom properties, tracked-change author names and hyperlink targets - all as readable text.
The {\info} group holds the document properties: author, operator (last saved by), company, manager, title, subject, keywords, comments, the creation/revision/print times, a total edit-minutes count and a revision number. Because it is plain ASCII rather than a binary blob, it can be read straight out of the file without any special software.
Yes. RTF keeps a revision table listing everyone who made a tracked change, and those names remain in the file even after the changes are accepted and vanish from the visible text. A protected document also keeps a separate table of the accounts allowed to edit specific ranges, which persists after the protection is lifted.
RTF metadata is stored as plain text control words rather than in a separate binary container, so it can move with the content. Copying the document, or converting it, can carry the {\info} fields along, which is why an author or company name shows up in a file people assumed was clean.
Open the file in the word processor that produced it, clear the fields under File > Properties (author, company, manager and comments), accept or reject and turn off tracked changes so the revision table is emptied, and remove the template attachment and any custom properties; because RTF holds all of this as plain text, re-saving to .docx and running Word's Document Inspector gives a more thorough result. File X-Ray shows exactly what is present so you can confirm it is gone, but it inspects RTF rather than producing a stripped copy.
File X-Ray reads Rich Text Format files entirely in your browser - the file never leaves your device. For this format you can also download a clean copy with the metadata removed. Scan a file now.