CFT File

What are CFT files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a CFT file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your CFT files.

What is a CFT file?

CFT files have multiple uses, and Calamus ColorTable is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Calamus ColorTable

These CFT files contain the color tables used in Calamus, a desktop publishing application for the Atari ST home computer. These color tables allow you to choose between different colors when designing your logo or document.

How to open CFT files

Important: Different programs may use files with the CFT file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your CFT file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested ten different CFT openers which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 31, 2026

All known file formats using extension .CFT

While Calamus ColorTable is a popular type of CFT-file, we know of 3 different uses of the .CFT file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

CFast Animation

These CFT files contain the animations created in CFAST Disney Animation Studio, an animation software used on the Amiga computer, a computer popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

ChiWriter Low Resolution Screen Font.

ChiWriter Screen Font files are bitmap font resources used by the ChiWriter word processor to render text on video displays in low resolution. They supply the fixed-size patterns ChiWriter displays on the screen for its built-in fonts (standard Roman, bold, italic, Greek, etc.) when working in a screen mode with limited graphical resolution. These files are created and used by ChiWriter itself.

These fonts are not printer fonts; they are optimized for display rather than high-quality output. ChiWriter users select low resolution screen fonts when viewing or editing documents on monitors - the characters remain sharp enough given the screen's pixel limitations. Printing uses separate higher-resolution fonts. ChiWriter version 3 distributions include a set of both low- ("cft") and high-resolution ("eft") screen fonts packaged together for use with different display and graphics modes.

ChiWriter version 4 defines "cft" as the font extension used for low resolution screen fonts.

In binary form, these screen fonts are identified by specific byte signatures: they start with byte 0x11 at offset 0, contain two zero bytes at offset 13, include a multibyte pattern (for example "00 08 0C 00 08 00 …") at offset 18, and include the ASCII string ".CFT" somewhere within the file.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of CFT files. Remember, different programs may use CFT files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about CFT file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.