SXW to HRZ Converter

SXW to HRZ — slow-scan TV format from legacy documents

Drop files here. 1 GB maximum file size or Sign Up
to
Facebook Amazon Microsoft Tesla Nestle Walmart L'Oreal

SSTV Format

Convert SXW document pages to HRZ for slow-scan television applications — a specialized format for radio image transmission.

Quick Turnaround

HRZ files are compact. Cloud servers deliver the conversion result in moments without impacting your device in any way.

Browser-Based

No installation needed. Run the SXW to HRZ conversion entirely in your web browser from any operating system or device.

How to convert SXW to HRZ

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose hrz or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your hrz file right afterwards

About formats

SXW is the word processing document format used by StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0, developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 2002. The format was one of the first mainstream office document formats to adopt an XML-based architecture, packaging document content, styles, metadata, and embedded media in a ZIP archive — a structural approach that directly influenced the later OpenDocument Format (ODF). The content.xml file describes the document body using XML elements for paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, footnotes, and inline formatting, while styles.xml defines the styling rules and meta.xml carries document properties. SXW represented a significant milestone in open-source office software, demonstrating that a non-proprietary XML format could handle the full range of word processing features including change tracking, indexes, cross-references, and complex page layouts. One advantage was transparency and openness — the XML structure made document content inspectable, transformable, and processable using standard tools, a sharp contrast to the opaque binary formats dominant at the time. The format's role as a technological precursor to the ODF standard is another historical significance: the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee used the OpenOffice.org XML format (including SXW) as the starting point for developing ODF 1.0. While SXW was superseded by ODT with OpenOffice.org 2.0 in 2005, existing SXW documents can be opened by LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, and document conversion tools.
Developer: Sun Microsystems
Initial release: 2002
HRZ is a simple raster image format associated with slow-scan television (SSTV), a method of transmitting still images over radio frequencies used by amateur radio operators since the late 1950s when Copthorne Macdonald pioneered the technology. HRZ files store images at a fixed resolution of 256x240 pixels in raw RGB format, with each pixel represented as three bytes (red, green, blue) at 8 bits per channel, producing uncompressed files of exactly 184,320 bytes. The format has no header, no metadata, and no compression — the file is simply a sequential dump of raw pixel data in row-major order. This extreme simplicity reflects the format's origins in the amateur radio community, where SSTV images are transmitted as audio tones encoding luminance and chrominance values over narrow-bandwidth HF (shortwave) radio channels. The fixed 256x240 resolution corresponds to common SSTV transmission modes, and HRZ files serve as the digital capture or storage medium for received SSTV transmissions. One advantage is the format's zero-overhead structure: with no parsing, decompression, or metadata processing required, HRZ files can be read by any program capable of reading raw pixel data with known dimensions — a single function call in virtually any programming language. The format's connection to amateur radio SSTV culture is another notable aspect: HRZ files document a unique form of image communication where operators transmit photographs over thousands of miles using nothing but radio waves and audio encoding, a practice that continues today alongside digital modes. HRZ files can be opened by ImageMagick, GIMP, and specialized SSTV software.
Developer: SSTV Community
Initial release: 1985

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert SXW to HRZ?

HRZ is used in slow-scan television (SSTV) — a niche but specific need for transmitting document images via radio signals.

What opens HRZ files?

SSTV software, ImageMagick, and specialized ham radio imaging tools can process HRZ files for display and transmission.

What resolution does HRZ use?

HRZ images typically have a fixed 256x240 resolution suited for SSTV. Document content is scaled to fit this format.

Is this free?

Basic SXW to HRZ conversion is free on Convertio. Premium plans provide extended capabilities for specialized formats.

Can I convert from any device?

Yes — the browser-based tool works on any platform with internet access. No special software needed on your device.

How fast is it?

HRZ files are tiny. Conversion from SXW finishes in seconds using cloud processing without any local device overhead.