Hancom

Hancom Inc. is a South Korean software company focused on office productivity, document management, digital collaboration, and related software services. Established in 1990, the company became associated with Hangul, a word-processing program designed for the Korean language and named after Korea’s native writing system. Hangul helped establish Hancom as a significant domestic alternative to international office-software providers by addressing Korean-language typography, input, document formatting, and local user requirements. The company’s principal business remains its Hancom Office family of applications. The suite includes Hanword, a word processor; HanCell, a spreadsheet application; and HanShow, a presentation program. Hancom has offered Korean and English-language versions, including an international edition intended for users outside South Korea. Its product portfolio also includes viewers, document-conversion tools, cloud-based document services, and electronic-signature software. These offerings extend the brand beyond a traditional desktop office suite into document workflows and software-as-a-service use cases. Hancom’s products serve individuals, businesses, educational institutions, and public-sector organizations. Its competitive identity is rooted in Korean-language compatibility and local familiarity, while international versions and web or cloud products broaden the company’s addressable market. Hancom Docs represents the company’s move toward online document storage, access, and collaboration, while Hancom Docs Converter and Hancom Sign support adjacent document-processing and transaction workflows. The company has also maintained a broader historical portfolio of office, graphics, printing, input, and language-related software. Several earlier products, including HanGrim, Hangul Print, HanMaek, HanTeX, NetHangul, and Documen, are no longer identified as current products. The surviving core is centered on Hancom Office and associated document services. Hancom has faced legal scrutiny over its use of open-source software. In 2017, a United States federal court ruled against the company in a dispute concerning its use of Ghostscript code under the GNU General Public License. The case highlighted the licensing obligations that can arise when software incorporates dual-licensed open-source components. Hancom’s history therefore combines strong localization in Korean productivity software with the broader challenges of maintaining a commercial software portfolio across desktop, cloud, and open-source environments. Hancom remains an active South Korean software brand. Its publicly traded corporate identity, established office-suite franchise, and expansion into cloud documents and electronic signatures position it as a domestic technology provider with international product ambitions. Publicly available reference material does not establish a complete current list of executives, ownership details, headquarters information, financial performance, or the precise status of every product, so those fields are left unspecified here.

Hancom was established in South Korea in 1990 and developed its identity around Korean-language computing. Its best-known early and continuing product is Hangul, a word processor created for the Korean language. The product’s name refers to hangul, Korea’s native writing system, and its development reflected the need for software that handled Korean text, typography, input, and document production effectively. From this foundation, Hancom expanded into a broader office-productivity portfolio. Hancom Office became the company’s central suite, combining Hanword for word processing, HanCell for spreadsheets, and HanShow for presentations. The company has distributed the suite in Korean and English and has produced international versions aimed at users beyond South Korea. Other related offerings have included viewers and document-conversion utilities, allowing users to read, exchange, and transform office files even when they do not use the full authoring suite. Hancom’s historical catalog was broader than its current core products. It included office products marketed under the HanArum name, the vector-drawing program HanGrim, Hangul Print, the Hangul input/output utility HanMaek, HanTeX, NetHangul, and Documen. These products illustrate the company’s earlier effort to cover multiple parts of the personal-computing and document-production environment. The available reference material identifies these products as discontinued, while the current portfolio is more closely associated with Hancom Office and document services. The company has increasingly connected its office-software heritage with cloud and workflow products. Hancom Docs provides a cloud-oriented document service, while Hancom Docs Converter addresses document conversion. Hancom Sign extends the portfolio into electronic signatures, a category linked to digital transactions and business document workflows. This development gives Hancom a position that spans conventional installed office applications and newer service-based document tools. A significant legal event occurred in May 2017, when Hancom lost a case in a United States federal court concerning its use of Ghostscript code. Ghostscript is distributed under either the Affero General Public License or a commercial license. The dispute concerned the consequences of using the code under the open-source licensing terms, including the requirement to release covered derivative code or obtain an appropriate commercial license. The case drew attention to compliance responsibilities for commercial software companies that incorporate open-source components. On May 27, 2020, Hancom Group announced the unveiling of a new version of Hancom Office. The announcement represented the continued renewal of the company’s core suite rather than a departure from its established office-software identity. Across its history, Hancom has therefore combined localization for the Korean market with efforts to support English-language and international use, while extending from word processing into integrated office applications, cloud documents, conversion, and electronic signatures. Hancom is described in the reference material as a publicly listed South Korean company traded on KOSDAQ under ticker 030520. The available sources do not provide enough reliable information to document a complete chronology of ownership changes, executive leadership, financial results, headquarters, or current market share. Those details remain unfilled rather than inferred.

1. 2020New Hancom Office version announced

   Hancom Group announces the unveiling of the latest version of Hancom Office on May 27.

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2. 2017U.S. federal court rules in Ghostscript licensing dispute

   Hancom loses a U.S. federal court case concerning the use of Ghostscript code and obligations under its open-source licensing terms.

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3. 1990Hancom is established

   Hancom is established in South Korea and begins building a software business centered on local-language computing.

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A Korean-language-centered office software provider that combines a mature desktop productivity suite with cloud document, conversion, and electronic-signature services.

• Hancom OfficeOffice productivity suite

  Hancom’s principal office-software family. It brings together applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, with versions supporting Korean and English users. The suite is the main expression of Hancom’s long-standing focus on Korean-language document production while also serving international users.

• HanwordWord processor

  A word-processing application in the Hancom Office family. Hanword is designed for creating and editing documents and is associated with Hancom’s Korean-language office-software heritage. The product is also described as compatible with Microsoft Word document workflows.

• HanCellSpreadsheet software

  Hancom’s spreadsheet application within its office suite. HanCell supports spreadsheet-oriented work as part of the broader Hancom Office environment, complementing the suite’s word-processing and presentation tools.

• HanShowPresentation software

  The presentation component of Hancom Office. HanShow is intended for preparing and delivering slide-based presentations and forms the third major productivity application alongside Hanword and HanCell.

• Hancom DocsCloud document service

  A cloud-oriented document service that extends Hancom’s traditional desktop productivity focus into online document access and service-based workflows. The available reference material identifies it as a current Hancom offering but does not provide detailed technical or commercial specifications.

• Hancom Docs ConverterDocument conversion software

  A document-conversion product associated with Hancom’s broader document-management portfolio. It is intended to support transformation between document formats and complements Hancom’s authoring, viewing, and cloud services.

• Hancom SignElectronic-signature software

  An electronic-signature offering that extends Hancom into digital agreement and document-transaction workflows. The reference material identifies Hancom Sign as a current product but does not specify its detailed feature set or geographic availability.

• Hancom Office Hanword ViewerDocument viewer

  A viewer product for accessing Hanword-related documents without necessarily using the full authoring suite. It belongs to Hancom’s family of document-access utilities.

• Hancom Office 2020 International VersionOffice productivity suite2020

  An international edition of Hancom’s office software intended for use outside the company’s primary Korean market. The available material identifies the edition but does not provide further details about supported regions or release configuration.

• HangulWord processor

  Hancom’s native Korean-language word-processing program and the product most closely associated with the company’s origin and brand identity. It was created to address Korean-language computing and became the foundation for Hancom’s broader office-software business.

• 2020Unveiling of a new Hancom Office versionProduct launch

  Hancom Office remained the company’s principal product family and required continued version development for desktop and international productivity-software users.

  What changed. Hancom Group announced the unveiling of the latest version of Hancom Office on May 27, 2020.

  Aftermath. The announcement continued Hancom’s established office-suite strategy. The available reference material does not document adoption, sales, or subsequent product results.

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• 2017Ghostscript open-source licensing litigationControversy

  Hancom lost a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court concerning its use of Ghostscript source code. Ghostscript was available under the Affero GPL or a commercial license; the dispute concerned the obligations arising from use under the open-source license, including the requirement to release covered code or obtain a commercial license.

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• 2020Hancom Group announces a new version of Hancom Office

  Hancom Group announced the unveiling of the latest version of Hancom Office on May 27, 2020, continuing development of the company’s main office-productivity franchise.

  Product launchProduct generation
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1. Hancom
2. Hancom official website