Extract text from Trivial Graph Format files (TGF)
To convert TGF graph files to another format, you need yEd Graph Editor or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Graph Data File" file type, you need software like yEd Graph Editor or a similar tool.
The .TGF (Trivial Graph Format) file is a highly simplified text format used to define mathematical graphs and networks. It consists of two sections separated by a single # character: a list of node IDs and labels, followed by a list of source and target edges. Because of its structural simplicity, it is primarily used for quick data imports, basic network analysis, or academic modeling. You can open .TGF files using network analysis tools like Gephi or yEd Graph Editor, as well as standard text editors.
The main disadvantage of the .TGF format is its extreme simplicity. It does not store layout coordinates, visual styling, node colors, or complex metadata attributes. Sharing a .TGF file means the recipient will only see the raw structural relationships, not the visual diagram you might have modeled. Furthermore, these files are not supported by web browsers, standard office suites, or generic image viewers.
To visualize or share the data effectively, you must convert the .TGF file. The best targets are GRAPHML or GML for retaining structured graph data with added metadata support, or CSV for tabular data analysis. For visual sharing, rendering the graph and exporting to SVG or PNG is necessary.
Graph rendering can be complex since .TGF lacks coordinate data. Most online converters fail because they try to treat it as a standard text document instead of network data.
Convert.Guru analyzes your TGF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted GRAPHML, TGS, TXT, CSML, FIT and PIN files.
If you want to convert TGF file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use yEd Graph Editor or similar software from the "Graph Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to TGF, try yEd Graph Editor or another comparable tool in the "Graph Data Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our TGF converter.