ReasonableRTF - Fast RTF to Plain Text Converter 🚀

A lightweight and performant C# library designed for rapidly converting Rich Text Format (RTF) files into plain text.

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Installation

Install the library via NuGet:

dotnet add package ReasonableRTF.Standard

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Quick Start

Converting an RTF file (as a byte array) to plain text is straightforward. The Convert method returns an RtfResult object, providing the converted text and comprehensive error information, if any.

Basic Conversion

Here is how to convert an RTF byte array to a plain text string:

using ReasonableRTF;
using ReasonableRTF.Models;
using System.IO;

// ...

// 1. Initialize the converter
RtfToTextConverter converter = new RtfToTextConverter();

// 2. Load the RTF data (e.g., from a file) and convert
RtfResult result = converter.Convert(File.ReadAllBytes(Context.Path));

if (result.Error == RtfError.None)
{
    // Conversion was successful
    string plainText = result.Text;
    Console.WriteLine("Converted Text:\n" + plainText);
}
else
{
    // Handle conversion errors
    Console.WriteLine($"Conversion Error: {result.Error} at byte position: {result.BytePositionOfError}");
    if (result.Exception != null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Exception Details: {result.Exception.Message}");
    }
}

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The RtfResult Class

The RtfResult object provides full details about the conversion process, ensuring you can robustly handle success and failure cases.

Property	Type	Description
Text	string	The converted plain text.
Error	RtfError	The error code. This will be RtfError.None upon successful conversion.
BytePositionOfError	int	The approximate position in the data stream where the error occurred, or -1 if no error.
Exception	Exception?	The caught exception, or null if no exception occurred during conversion.

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Conversion Options

For more control over the output, you can provide an instance of the RtfToTextConverterOptions class to the Convert method. This allows customization of line breaks, special character handling, and hidden text inclusion.

Applying Options

RtfToTextConverter converter = new RtfToTextConverter();
RtfToTextConverterOptions options = new RtfToTextConverterOptions
{
    ConvertHiddenText = true, // Include text marked as hidden
    LineBreakStyle = LineBreakStyle.LF // Use Unix-style line breaks
};

RtfResult result = converter.Convert(File.ReadAllBytes(Context.Path), options);
// ... check result

RtfToTextConverterOptions Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
SwapUppercaseAndLowercasePhiSymbols	bool	true	If set to true, swaps the uppercase and lowercase Greek phi characters in the Symbol font translation. This addresses a common reversal in the Windows Symbol font.
SymbolFontA0Char	SymbolFontA0Char	SymbolFontA0Char.EuroSign	Sets the character at index 0xA0 (160) in the Symbol font to Unicode translation table. Important for compatibility with older Symbol font versions.
LineBreakStyle	LineBreakStyle	LineBreakStyle.CRLF	Specifies the line break style (CRLF or LF) for the converted plain text output.
ConvertHiddenText	bool	false	Determines whether text marked as hidden in the RTF file should be included in the plain text output.

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License and Attribution

Code License

The original code for this RTF converter was written by Brian Tobin and is licensed under the MIT License (Copyright (c) 2024 Brian Tobin). For the full license text, please refer to the LICENSE file ReasonableRTF. This project is a version of that code, adapted and converted to .NET Standard.