Extract text from Mac BinHex files (HQX)
To convert HQX BinHex files to another format, you need StuffIt Expander or other Encoded software.
To convert other file formats to the "BinHex 4.0 File" file type, you need software like StuffIt Expander or a similar tool.
.hqx files are plain text files that encode 8-bit Macintosh binary files into a 7-bit ASCII format. Created by Yves Lempereur and heavily utilized on classic Apple Mac OS, this encoding method, known as BinHex 4.0 (Binary-to-Hexadecimal), preserved the unique dual-fork structure (data fork and resource fork) of Mac files during internet transfers.
Historically, users decoded these files using StuffIt Expander or early built-in Mac OS tools. Today, legacy utilities like The Unarchiver or command-line tools like macutils are required to extract the contents.
The .hqx format is completely obsolete. Modern operating systems do not natively understand classic Mac resource forks, and modern internet protocols (which use MIME and Base64) no longer require 7-bit text workarounds. Files encoded in BinHex are significantly larger than the original binary data and are totally useless until decoded. Attempting to open one in a standard text editor just reveals pages of gibberish ASCII text.
Standard online converters usually fail to process .hqx because it is an encoding layer, often wrapping a proprietary legacy archive like sit (StuffIt). You don't convert .hqx directly to pdf or jpg; you decode it to extract the original file. If the extracted file is a classic Mac application, it will not run on modern Windows or macOS without a specialized emulator.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HQX file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SIT, OPT, ZIP, TXT, PDF, ASPX, RGF, B64 and UU files.
If you want to convert HQX file to BASE64, HEX, BIN, ENC, CRYPT, AES, DES, RSA, PGP, GPG, ASC or KEY, you can use StuffIt Expander or similar software from the "Legacy Mac Data Encoding" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert CER, BIN, PEM, DER, KEY, P7S, PFX, ENC, P12, BASE64, P7B or HEX files to HQX, try StuffIt Expander or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Mac Data Encoding" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HQX converter.