textutil

Manipulate text files in various formats, textutil first appeared in OS X 10.4

Syntax

       textutil -info [options] file ...
       textutil -convert fmt [options] file ...
       textutil -cat fmt [options] file ...
       textutil -help [options] file ...

Key
     -help         Show the usage information and exit.

     -info         Display information about the specified files.

     -convert fmt  Convert the files to format fmt and
                   write each one back to the file system.

     -cat fmt      Read the specified files, concatenate them, and write the
                   result out as a single file in the indicated format.

     fmt           One of:  txt, html, rtf, rtfd, doc, wordml, or webarchive

     -extension ext  Specify an extension to be used for output files (by
                     default, the extension will be determined from the format).

     -output path    The file name to be used for the first output file.

     -stdout         Send the first output file to stdout.

     -encoding IANA_name | NSStringEncoding
                     The encoding to be used for plain text or HTML output
                     (by default, the output encoding will be UTF-8).

     -inputencoding IANA_name | NSStringEncoding
                     Force all plain text input files to be interpreted using
                     the specified encoding (by default, a file's encoding
                     will be determined from its BOM).

     -format fmt     Force all input files to be interpreted using the indicated 
                     cated format (by default, a file's format will be determined
                     mined from its contents).

     -font font      The font to be used when converting to rich text.

     -fontsize size  Font size (in points) to be used for converting plain to rich text.

     --              Specify that all further arguments are file names.

Additional options for HTML and WebArchive files:

     -noload          Do not load subsidiary resources.
     -nostore         Do not write out subsidiary resources.
     -baseurl url     Specify a base URL to be used for relative URLs.
     -timeout t       Specify the time in seconds to wait for resources to
                      load.
     -textsizemultiplier x
                      Specify a numeric factor by which to multiply font
                      sizes.
     -excludedelements (tag1, tag2, ...)
                      Specify which HTML elements should not be used in generated 
                      ated HTML (the list should be a single argument, and so
                      will usually need to be quoted in a shell context).
     -prefixspaces n  Specify the number of spaces by which to indent nested
                      elements in generated HTML (default is 2).

Additional options for treating metadata:

     -strip        Do not copy metadata from input files to output files.
     -title val    Specify the title metadata attribute for output files.
     -author val   Specify the author metadata attribute for output files.
     -subject val  Specify the subject metadata attribute for output files.
     -keywords (val1, val2, ...)
                   Specify the keywords metadata attribute for output files
                   (the list should be a single argument, and so will usually
                   need to be quoted in a shell context).

     -comment val  Specify the comment metadata attribute for output files.
     -editor val   Specify the editor metadata attribute for output files.
     -company val  Specify the company metadata attribute for output files.
     -creationtime yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ
                   Specify the creation time metadata attribute for output
                   files.

     -modificationtime yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ
                   Specify the modification time metadata attribute for output
                   files.

Examples:

Display information about foo.rtf.
$ textutil -info foo.rtf

Convert foo.rtf into foo.html.
$ textutil -convert html foo.rtf

Convert foo.txt into foo.rtf, using Times 10 for the font.
$ textutil -convert rtf -font Times -fontsize 10 foo.txt

Load all RTF files in the current directory, concatenate their contents, and write the result out as index.html with the HTML title set to Several Files".

$ textutil -cat html -title "Several Files" -output index.html *.rtf

Create a .txt file for each .doc file in the directory.
$ textutil -convert txt *.doc

Notes:
The textutil command exits 0 on success, and 1 on failure.
Some options may require a connection to the window server.

“A lot of people are afraid to say what they want, that's why a lot of people don't get what they want” ~ Madonna

Related macOS commands:

GetFileInfo - Get attributes of HFS+ files
pr - Convert text files for printing
say - Convert text to audible speech
setfile - Set attributes of HFS+ files
sips - Scriptable image processing system