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.
What opens 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.
Windows
- Hancom Office Hangul
- Hancom Office Viewer
- LibreOffice Writer (import)
macOS
- Hancom Office for Mac
- LibreOffice Writer (import)
Linux
- LibreOffice Writer (import)
Open a .hwp file step by step
- Confirm the file really is a .hwp. Drop it into the WhatFileType identifier, which reads its signature in your browser without uploading anything.
- On Windows, open it with Hancom Office Hangul or Hancom Office Viewer.
- On Mac, use Hancom Office for Mac or LibreOffice Writer (import).
- On Linux, try LibreOffice Writer (import).
- Still stuck? Convert the .hwp to pdf, which opens more widely.
Why can't I open my .hwp file?
Almost always because no installed app understands HWP. Install one of the apps above, or convert the file to a format your existing software already reads. If double-clicking opens the wrong program instead of nothing at all, the file association is set to the wrong app rather than the file being broken.
The other possibility is that the file is not really a .hwp at all. Drop it into the file identifier to check it by its bytes instead of its name. Nothing is uploaded.
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.
What is the .hwp file signature (magic bytes)?
A .hwp file starts with the hex bytes D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1. Programs identify HWP by those bytes, not by the filename, so a renamed file still gives itself away.
These are the documented signatures for HWP. For a full breakdown, see the OLE2 Compound File file signature page.
| Hex signature | Offset | ASCII | 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. How sources are ranked and what is deliberately left out is set out in the methodology.