8 free HWP editors ranked: how far can you edit without Hancom?

HWP is the format of Hangul (한글), the word processor made by Hancom that most Korean government offices and many schools run on. Outside Korea almost nothing opens it. Google Docs cannot even convert it: .hwp is not on Google's list of files Docs can import. On a Mac, for years, the only official way to look at one was Hancom's free viewer, and its US App Store reviews say so.

And reading is only half of it. Forms usually have to go back as HWP, and a viewer cannot fill in a single box.

Up front: this was written by the people who made the EZPZ HWP editor, which is on the list. It is built on an open-source engine called rhwp (MIT licence), which is also on the list. So the criteria come first, and the order follows them. We did not test the other services ourselves; their rows come from each company's own documentation.

Viewing, editing, and saving back to HWP

There are three kinds of tool. Viewers show and print the document. Office suites open it but convert it to Word (DOCX) or ODT before you can edit. HWP editors let you change it and save it as HWP again. If the other side wants HWP back, only the third kind will do.

Even then, the result can look different. Hangul documents are usually set in fonts that come with Hangul. Without them, a program draws the text in a similar font, and one slightly wider letter can push a line over, stretch a table cell, or turn a one-page form into two. In 2022 one reviewer found that even Hancom's own mobile app got this wrong:

What we ranked on

Everything below is free. Tools that can send the file back as HWP come first, and likely layout fidelity decides the order after that. If you can pay, the answer is Hangul itself: Hancom's Personal plan includes "Windows/Mac Hancom Office". We could not confirm the price.

The ranking: edits and saves back to HWP first

1. Hancom Docs (free account, web)

• What it is: Hancom's own web and mobile office. Its plan page lists the Free plan as including "Web/mobile Hancom Office", 2GB of storage and the Windows/Mac viewer.
• Why first: it comes from the company that makes Hangul, so it is the most likely to open and save a document the way the sender's copy does. We did not test it ourselves.
• The catch: you need an account, and the document goes into Hancom's cloud to be edited. We could not read the pricing page, so exactly what the free account unlocks is unconfirmed.

2. EZPZ HWP editor

• What it is: opens HWP and HWPX in the browser, edits them, and saves as HWP or HWPX. No install, no account, and the file never leaves the browser. The interface is in English or Korean.
• Why second: it edits the file and sends it back as HWP with no account, no install and no upload, which matters most for forms that carry personal details. The only thing separating it from first place is fonts: Hancom's fonts are not bundled, but if they are installed on your computer the editor can use them and draw the document closer to the original.

3. rhwp (Chrome extension, online demo)

The open-source project our editor is built on. Its Chrome extension (0.8.6, updated 2 September 2026) says all processing happens in the browser and saves edited documents as HWP; the online demo on GitHub also offers HWPX and PDF. Same engine, so documents open almost exactly as in ours. What separates them is how you use it: the extension needs installing and the demo is in Korean only, while ours opens from a link, has a full English interface, and has its own work on inserting and editing pictures, text boxes, equations and connectors.

4. Polaris Office Web

Its page says "Basic features are provided for free, and some features such as AI require login" and "Polaris Office can open, edit, and save HWP files." The web version lists DOCX, PPTX, XLSX and HWP; HWPX appears only for the installed version. A different company is reading Hancom's format, so check the layout. We found nothing official on whether files are uploaded.

5. LibreOffice with the H2Orestart extension

The H2Orestart extension (0.7.14) lets the free LibreOffice open HWP and HWPX. Its description says "JRE 8 or higher is required", so you need Java too. The decisive limit is in the Korean half of the same description: files can be saved only as ODT. You can export a PDF (File > Export As > Export as PDF), but not an HWP. Dense government forms are its weak spot, as a recent report on the extension's issue tracker shows:

6. ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors

This free installed suite has opened HWP and HWPX since version 8.3 (February 2025). The release notes are candid: "If you need to edit such files, they will be converted and saved to OOXML formats (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX). However in this case, full formatting compliance is not guaranteed." Fine for reading and copying text out; no use when the form must go back as HWP.

7. Hancom Office viewer (Windows, Mac)

Shows the document exactly as Hangul would and prints it, but cannot edit. On the Mac App Store it is 한컴오피스 한글 Viewer, version 12.31.8, and its update history includes a fix for PDF saving, so PDF export works there too. For reading and printing only, it is the most accurate choice.

8. View only: Naver Whale, Google Drive add-ons

Naver announced in April 2020 that its Whale browser would open .hwp documents with nothing to install; editing was not part of it. Google Drive does not list HWP among the files it previews. Two Drive add-ons, Polaris Office HWP and Synap Document Viewer, are viewers only, and Synap says converted documents are kept on Google Cloud for 24 hours, then deleted.

The whole thing in one table

Filled in on 30 September 2026 from each company's own pages. Only the EZPZ row was tested by us. Features and plans change without notice.

What the table says

Only Hancom's software can promise the layout, and using it free means an account and an upload. The browser editors that save HWP without uploading (ours and rhwp) lack Hancom's fonts, so layout can drift. The free installed suites keep your file local but cannot give you an HWP back. Pick what to give up: for a form carrying a passport or bank number, keep it off other people's servers; for a tightly packed form where one pushed line matters, go with Hancom.

About the one we made

The EZPZ HWP editor has Hangul's eight menus, in English: File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Page, Table and Tools. Character Shape, Paragraph Shape, Create Table, Merge Cells, Picture, Shape, Text Box, Header, Footer, Footnote, Find and Replace and Page Setup are all there. A picture lands at the cursor as soon as you pick the file, a new text box is ready for typing the moment you draw it, equations resize from a corner and move by dragging, and connectors stay attached when the shapes they join are moved. The file never leaves your browser. Save as HWP and Save as HWPX write the file directly; Save as PDF goes through the browser's print dialog, and the separate HWP to PDF converter skips that step.

Open the HWP editor

How fonts work. Instead of Hancom's fonts, the editor ships Hamchorom and free fonts such as Nanum and Noto Sans KR. When a document uses a font the editor lacks, it offers "Detect Local Fonts (Recommended)" or "View with Substitute Fonts"; if that font is installed on your computer, detection draws the document closer to the original. The fonts download once on first use, so the first screen takes a moment on a phone.

Whatever editor you use, reopen the saved file before sending a form back and check the tables and page count. If the recipient has Hangul, ask them to open it once and confirm it looks right.