All about ODF files

ODF refers to the OpenDocument family as a whole (including formats such as .ODS and .ODG) or the rarely used .odf file format for mathematical formulas. Often, however, it’s simply a minor typo.

Open Document Formula – LibreOffice Math

Officially, the .ODF file extension is defined in the Open Document Format for Office Applications specification (OASIS) on page 698^[1]as follows:

Thus, .odf is the official file extension for mathematical formulas created with LibreOffice Math. In reality, however, the format is very rarely used; usually, the explanation is different:

Most often: a small typo

More than 13 years of experience at file-converter-online.com have shown that the vast majority of ODF files actually contain ODG files. This is not surprising, since the letters F and G are right next to each other on the keyboard, and the "new" file extensions of the ODF family aren’t quite as easy to remember as ".DOC," ".XLS," or ".PPT." However, since file-converter-online.com analyzes the file’s so-called metadata beforehand to ensure the best conversion, this isn’t a problem. Our tools always use the best method to convert the file, regardless of the file extension. Thus, an ODF file containing text is converted differently than an ODF file that is actually an ODG.

The Open Document Format family

The abbreviation ODF can also stand for "Open Document Format" and describes the entire family of Open Document formats, namely .ODT for text documents, .ODP for presentations, .ods for spreadsheets, and .odf for formulas.

Sources:

[1] Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0

Last updated on 7. April 2026 by Sören with the experience of more than 128,197,706 converted files since 2013.