Classic Mac OS · hqx · fork-preserving
Classic Mac OS encoding that bundled binary files with resource forks into 7-bit ASCII for transfer over text-only channels. Uses RLE compression and a base64-like encoding. Produces .hqx files.
Text / Bytes → BinHex (hex-only representation) box — the encoded output appears instantly in BinHex (hexified).(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) header line, then a : separator before the encoded data.Copy result to copy the full .hqx-style string to your clipboard.BinHex → Text box — it must contain the : separator — and the decoded text appears below it.Clear any time to reset a box and start over..hqx archives
Open and decode the BinHex 4.0 files that were everywhere in the classic Mac OS download era, without an old Mac or a vintage utility.
BinHex was designed to bundle a file's data and resource forks together, so nothing was lost in transfer. Paste an old stream here to recover its text content.
The encoding produces 7-bit ASCII, making binary data safe to send over email, newsgroups, and other channels that mangle raw bytes.
See the exact header line, the : separator, and the 64-character alphabet that make up a real BinHex 4.0 stream.
Trace how a base64-like encoding with a custom alphabet turns arbitrary bytes into printable characters — a common pattern across many formats.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or sent to a server — safe for sensitive payloads and legacy data.
BinHex (short for "binary to hexadecimal") is a classic Mac OS format for turning binary files into 7-bit ASCII so they could travel over text-only channels. BinHex 4.0 added a header line and a base64-like encoding to the earlier hex-based versions, producing .hqx files.
The encoded output always begins with (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0), followed by a : that marks where the encoded data starts. The decoder uses that : to find the payload.
Decoding needs the : that separates the header from the data. Make sure you paste the complete encoded output — including the header line and the colon — rather than just the trailing characters.
No. Despite the name, BinHex 4.0 doesn't use 0–9/A–F hex digits. It encodes bytes with a 64-character alphabet (a base64-like scheme), so the output uses letters, digits, and symbols like !, #, and `.
The classic BinHex format was built to bundle a file's data and resource forks together. This tool gives you a BinHex 4.0 representation of the text or bytes you feed it, so you can read and recover the payload from a classic .hqx stream.
No. BinHex is fully reversible and offers no security — anyone can decode it. It's a different representation of the same bytes, not a way to hide data.
Never. All conversion happens locally in JavaScript. Your input is not sent to, stored on, or logged by any server.