Why cannot Pages show pictures in .rtf files?

Part of the reason is that Pages is silly. If a picture is in a file, it should of course display it.

However, there is method in the madness. When it comes to rtf-files, Apple decided not to support pictures, as the rtf handling of images is too limited. Rtf supports only jpg pictures and png pictures and a number of "meta" image formats. This means that if you insert for example a small eps or pdf-file into an rtf document, MS Word will have to convert it to jpg or png, and then it is no longer scalable, even if you print on a printer with high resolution or with a large paper format. You can see this by simply increasing the view size in MS Word.

When an application like TextEdit saves to rtf, it instead uses rtfd, which allows for pdf and other high quality scalable formats.

If you open an rtfd from TextEdit in Pages the edges are still smooth with a high magnification. However, in any magnified rtf Word the edges of original PDF files are jagged.

So, Pages it not that silly after all? Oh, yes it is:

1. If a well formatted rtf file contains a picture, there is no excuse why Pages should not display it.
2. When Pages exports to rtf, it does not warn you that it is not going to export to rtf at all, but to rtfd, which no Windows application can read.
3. Not only that, the embedded picture in the rtfd file is not PDF! It is tiff, which is a rasterized bitmap format, so it still gets the jagged edges.