[garbanzo]

RTF isn't the tiniest format around, but since it's so easy to work with, I prefer it over some others.

In reading through the forums, I've discovered that Word makes really awful RTF files. They are filled with extra junk that only takes up space. Unfortunately, it's a whole lot easier to make a nice looking RTF in Word than in WordPad.

The solution is so easy - just compose your RTF in Word (or convert to RTF in Calibre and tidy up the results in Word). Then instead of saving, copy/paste to WordPad. All the formatting is copied over too. Save the document with WordPad, and you'll get a significantly smaller file.

This also works for existing RTF files - open in Word, copy to WordPad, then save.

My test was with an 80,000 word RTF created by Calibre from a LIT file. After cleaning it up, I first saved in Word, then copy/pasted to WordPad and saved there. The results:

Word RTF: 856 KB
WordPad RTF: 514 KB