TXT (Plain Text)
TXT is the simplest file format — pure text with no formatting, images, or metadata. It contains only character data encoded in ASCII, UTF-8, or another character encoding. Plain text files are universally readable and are the foundation of many other formats.
MIME Type
text/plain
Type
Text
Compression
Lossless
Advantages
- + Opens in every text editor on every operating system
- + Zero overhead — file size equals content size
- + No risk of embedded malware or macros
- + Perfect for version control, piping, and scripting
Disadvantages
- − No formatting, images, or structured data
- − Character encoding must be known to display correctly
- − Not suitable for documents that need visual presentation
When to Use .TXT
Use TXT for logs, configuration notes, quick data dumps, and any content where formatting is unnecessary.
Technical Details
A .txt file is a sequence of bytes representing characters in a specific encoding. There is no header, metadata, or structure beyond line endings (LF on Unix/macOS, CR+LF on Windows).
History
Plain text files predate modern computing, with ASCII standardized in 1963. UTF-8, created in 1993, extended plain text to support every writing system and became the dominant encoding on the web.
Convert from .TXT
Convert to .TXT
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