colored text format for readme or simple documentation files

I am looking for a colored format that is supported by ubuntu to write documentation files that can be displayed colored and bolded to be displayed on a text editor like gedit. I wanted to ask it before getting to start to create my own format. Does anyone know such a format?

2 Answers

README files should be as easy to read as possible without installing additional tools. Therefore, create a simple text README file, and if you want to go fancy, make a README.html version with colors, bells and whistles.

I guess README files should be plain text, so they can easily be opened and read by anyone. But you might use capital letters, special characters to create the formatting effect.