An .hwp file is a document from Hangul (한글, also called Hangul Word Processor or HWP), the word processor in Hancom Office and the standard for documents in South Korea. Government offices, schools, universities and many Korean companies publish forms, notices and reports in it, so people abroad often receive one by email or download one from a Korean website. Newer versions of Hangul save .hwpx instead, the same kind of document stored as XML.
Word, Pages and Google Docs do not open these files, and most phones show them as a file they cannot preview. This page reads the document and sets it out as text you can read, copy and save. It is free to use, with no account and no upload limit, and it runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and while the page stays open, a feature you have already used keeps working offline.
- What is an HWP file and what program makes it?
- It is a word processing document from Hangul, made by Hancom (한글과컴퓨터) and part of Hancom Office. It is to Korea roughly what Word is elsewhere, which is why Korean public bodies use it for forms and announcements. The .hwpx extension is the newer XML-based version of the same format.
- Can I translate a Hangul document into English?
- Yes. Open the document here, press Copy text and paste it into a translator such as Google Translate, Papago or DeepL, or save it as a .txt file and upload that to the translator. The text keeps its paragraphs, and table cells are separated by tabs.
- Why does the layout look different from Hangul?
- This page shows the text, tables and pictures in reading order, not the printed page. Page sizes, exact fonts, text wrapped around pictures, headers, footers and page numbers are left out, and shapes and drawings without text are not drawn. Equations and charts are not shown either. For the exact layout, open the file in Hangul or the free Hancom Office Viewer, or ask the sender for a PDF.
- Can it open a password-protected or distribution HWP file?
- No. A document saved with a password, and a "distribution document" (배포용 문서) that Hangul marks read-only, have their text encrypted. This page says so and shows the short unencrypted preview Hangul keeps in the file, usually the start of the first page. To read the rest, open it in Hangul or the Hancom Office Viewer.
- Does it open old HWP files from Hangul 97?
- Not yet. Files from Hangul 97 and earlier use an older format (HWP 3), and this page tells you when it meets one. Hangul and the Hancom Office Viewer still open them, and can save them again as .hwp or .hwpx.