Read Korean legal documents

What are .hwp files?

.hwp files are files of "Hangul", a proprietary word processing application published by the South Korean company Hancom Inc. Use of Hangul is the standard when it comes to Korean legal documents, for example see documents from the Financial Services Commission.

SojuHWP allows you to open .hwp files without paying for proprietary software.

Why did you build this?

There is currently no free / easily available software that can deal with .hwp files. For example, see this issue from LibreOffice.

I learnt about this when my friend (who translates and summarizes Korean legal documents as well as documents in other languages) told me about the issue. I also wanted an excuse to try building a desktop application.

I can't install SojuHWP

You might see an error saying: ["SojuHWP" can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software]. This is because the application is not signed (but that doesn't mean it's malicious).

Signing desktop applications for Mac is not free 😞. Code signing certificates for macOS apps can only be obtained through Apple by purchasing a membership to the Apple Developer Program. As of writing (11th April, 2024), this costs S$148 annually. I am unfortunately not able to afford this.

If you skip the warning and proceed with the installation, the application will work just fine. If you're concerned about malware, you are free to inspect all aspects of it here: https://github.com/watate/hwpx-reader (you can see all the code because it's open source).

Here's a short video showing how to install it:

How can I support you?

If this application helped you, you can buy me a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/watate 😊