HWP vs HWPX — What's the Difference?

Side by side

HWP: a proprietary binary format used for decades. You can't read its contents without Hancom software or a dedicated parsing engine.

HWPX: the document is written as XML files packed into a ZIP container, based on a Korean national open standard (OWPML), so other software can read and write it more easily.

Why everything is moving to HWPX

XML documents are easier to search, process automatically and archive long-term. Public institutions in Korea have been adopting HWPX as their default, and recent Hangul versions fully support saving in it.

Think of it like Microsoft Word's move from .doc to .docx.

Compatibility

Very old versions of Hangul may not open HWPX, while current versions open both.

If you don't know what the recipient uses, send a PDF — it looks identical on every device.

Opening either without Hangul

anyview.dev supports both HWP and HWPX. Drop the file and it detects the format, then shows the “PDF”, “JPG”, “PNG” and “Text (TXT)” buttons.

Everything runs in your browser; the file is never uploaded.

Can I just rename the extension?

No. Renaming .hwp to .hwpx doesn't change the internal structure, so the file will be treated as corrupted. To change formats, use Save As in Hangul and choose the other file type.