.HQX File

File extension hqx is associated with the Macintosh BinHex archive format that was used in previous versions of MAC OS operating systems.

BinHex is short for "binary-to-hexadecimal" and was once a common format to convert a file from binary form to an ASCII text file (8-bit binary format to 7-bit ASCII text format). Binary file converted to ASCII format take up more space, but are less likely to be corrupted when it transferred between systems. BinHex was very popular to transfer binary data as a text attachment via e-mail.

BinHex format was very popular on Mac OS 9 operating system and earlier because it combines data and resource forks of a file and preserves them during transfer.

BinHex format uses compression function of the RLE type, to avoid sending repetitive sequences of identical characters.

hqx MIME types: 
application/binhex
application/mac-binhex
application/mac-binhex40
application/octet-stream
application/x-gzip
application/x-stuffit
application/x-tar
application/x-winzip
application/x-zip-compressed

Files with hqx extension are archives in Macintosh BinHex archive format. Used mainly in previous versions of Mac OS operating system.

How to open:

HQX format is supported by numerous compression tools, such as WinZip or Stuffit.

How to convert:

Easiest way how to convert *.hqx files is to decompress it with supported program and compress to another archive format.