Richtext field will allow the user to have formatted text... if they use a browser that supports activex controls (IE). It will allow for plain text support.
You can then make everyone use the browser form to view the information. One nice thing is you can publish the richtext field to SharePoint as plain text. This enables searching for that data to find the form. It just has to be viewed via the browser form. You then use views to determine what fields users get to see via the browser form.
Could work depending on what your process is??