What is a .hwp file?
Hancom Hangul Word Processor Document · Document · Hancom · 1989
An .hwp file is a document from Hangul (Hancom Word Processor), the dominant word processor in South Korea. Korean government and public institutions publish heavily in HWP, so the files travel worldwide.
What is a .hwp file used for?
HWP 5.x documents are OLE2 compound files, the same container as legacy Microsoft Office, with the content in zlib-compressed internal streams; Hancom has published the binary specification. Older 3.x files used a different, text-marked header.
Outside Korea the format is a frequent puzzle: Word does not open it natively. Hancom's free Hancom Office Viewer, the newer web viewers, and LibreOffice's HWP import filter are the usual solutions, and newer .hwpx files are a separate XML-based format.
How to open a .hwp file
The .hwp format opens in the following apps, grouped by operating system. If one app does not work, try another from the same list. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see how to open a .hwp file.
Windows
- Hancom Office Hangul
- Hancom Office Viewer
- LibreOffice Writer (import)
macOS
- Hancom Office for Mac
- LibreOffice Writer (import)
Linux
- LibreOffice Writer (import)
How to convert a .hwp file
You can convert a .hwp file to pdf, docx, txt using a conversion tool or the export menu of an app that opens it.
.hwp file signature (magic bytes)
Programs recognise a .hwp file by the bytes at the start of the file, not by its name. These are the signatures for HWP. For a full breakdown, see the HWP file signature page.
| Hex signature | Offset | Note |
|---|---|---|
| D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1 | 0 | OLE2 compound file |
See the full magic-numbers reference for every format.
Frequently asked questions
What is a .hwp file?
An .hwp file is a document from Hangul (Hancom Word Processor), the dominant word processor in South Korea. Korean government and public institutions publish heavily in HWP, so the files travel worldwide.
How do I open an .hwp file without Hancom Office?
Use Hancom's free viewer, or LibreOffice Writer, which ships an HWP import filter that handles most documents. Online converters to PDF also work for simple files.
What is the difference between .hwp and .hwpx?
.hwp is the binary OLE2-based format; .hwpx is the newer open XML-based format (OWPML). Recent Hancom Office versions read and write both.
Why do I keep receiving .hwp files?
They likely come from South Korea: government bodies, universities and companies there standardise on Hangul the way others standardise on Word.
Related formats
Sources
Details on this page were checked against authoritative references: