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Hex Fiend
Hex Fiend
2.11

4.8

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Hex Fiend free download for Mac

Hex Fiend

2.11
03 February 2019

A fast and clever free hex editor.

Overview

Hex Fiend is a fast, clever, and free Hex editor that has many unique features:

  • Insert, delete, rearrange: Hex Fiend does not limit you to in-place changes like some hex editors.
  • Work with huge files: Hex Fiend can handle as big a file as you're able to create. It's been tested on files as large as 118 GB.
  • Small footprint: Hex Fiend does not keep your files in memory. You won't dread launching or working with Hex Fiend even on low-RAM machines.
  • Fast: Open a huge file, scroll around, copy and paste, all instantly. Find what you're looking for with fast searching.
  • Binary diff: Hex Fiend can show the differences between files, taking into account insertions or deletions.
  • Smart saving: Hex Fiend knows not to waste time overwriting the parts of your files that haven't changed, and never needs temporary disk space.
  • Data inspector: Interpret data as integer or floating point, signed or unsigned, big or little endian...
  • Embeddable: It's really easy to incorporate Hex Fiend's hex or data views into your app. Its permissive BSD-style license won't burden you.

What's new in Hex Fiend

Version 2.11:
  • Hex Fiend is notarized for added security on 10.14+
  • Binary template improvements:
    • Add section selection
    • Add entry command for arbitrary key/value fields
    • Add eof as a special length parameter to go to the end of the file
    • Add optional -hex argument for unsigned integers to display as hexadecimal
    • Add str command that takes an encoding identifier
    • Add sectionvalue command that sets the value of the current section
    • Sections now auto-expand
    • Add preference for controlling behavior on single and double click of template entries
    • Set working directory to templates folder so "source" command can use relative paths
    • Performing a copy with a selected entry copies its value to the clipboard
    • Fix incorrect anchor usage in some commands
    • Fix incorrect error handling with zlib_uncompress
    • Fix window width adjustment when showing/hiding templates
    • Prefix hexadecimal values with 0x to match Data Inspector
    • Improve error messages for read failures
    • Improve documentation
  • Add anchored scrolling. When scrolling horizontally, the document will be anchored by the selection offset (if visible) or first visible byte
  • Add column view (off by default)
  • Add custom byte grouping
  • Fix data inspector text alignment (thanks rpendleton)
  • Fix plain/ascii text alignment with line numbers
  • Fix crash when Color Bytes is enabled with a multi-byte text encoding
  • Fix incorrect parsing of large ULEB128/SLEB128 values
  • Move fonts in Font menu to bottom to improve handling for a large number of fonts

Hex Fiend Screenshots

  • Hex Fiend for Mac - review, screenshots
  • Hex Fiend for Mac - review, screenshots
  • Hex Fiend for Mac - review, screenshots
  • Hex Fiend for Mac - review, screenshots

13 Hex Fiend Reviews

See all

Rate this app:

Kwojniak
Kwojniak
29 August 2006

Most helpful

A great hex editor! Simple, yet very fast.
Like (1)
Version 1.1
Edw
Edw
09 May 2019
After launching Hex Friend asked for access to my calendar... Why is that?!
Like
Version 2.11
1 answer(s)
Aargl
Aargl
24 May 2019
I've just discovered it installs /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ridiculousfish.HexFiend.PrivilegedHelper.plist
You have to disable it with LaunchControl, for example.
HexEdit just launched itself after months without using it, that rang the alarm to me...
I don't like all those "helpers" running in the background. :-(
Nowadays, if you wanna be quiet, you have to disable a huge lot of stuff from the OS itself and from anything you install...
Like
Aargl
Aargl
09 August 2018
I very rarely need this kind of tool, but this one is the best! (I compared it with 0xED and HexEdit) My favourite feature: documents comparison!
Like
Version 2.9
Thinking-Differently
Thinking-Differently
30 July 2017
At the moment, there seems to be a discrepancy between the developer's web site, and MacUpdate with respect to the minimum OS. MacUpdate says it is 10.7 while the developer's web site says it is 10.8.
Like
Version 2.8
1 answer(s)
BryanatMU
BryanatMU
31 July 2017
We are using the developer's statement in their release notes on Github.
Like
Arvidtp
Arvidtp
05 May 2015
Awesome! Binary comparison. Good basic Hex editing. Free. So useful! Just used it to repair corrupted AVCHD video structure on my camera's SD card so Final Cut could import the footage.
Like
Version 2.1.2
HansMueller4641
HansMueller4641
23 June 2013
best HEX editor on the mac
Like (1)
Version 2.1.2
Timmyb
Timmyb
05 February 2012
IVersion is showing as 2.1.1 in Get Info
Like
Version 2.1.2
Cjbolland
Cjbolland
05 February 2012
A simple app todo a simple task. Tops
Like
Version 2.1.2
Tonyboy
Tonyboy
10 September 2010
I think HexFiend has the potential to become a must-have Mac app, but there are a few features I would personally like to see before adopting this as my killer-app must-have hex editor: a) "Jump to Offset" should be able to handle hex offsets. Also, when I jump to an offset, it would be nice if the position was highlighted, not just the line. b) Font sizes / choices should be persistent across relaunches. c) It would be nice to be able to visualize data as more than int, float, hex and MacRoman. I'm thinking other useful visualizations would include binary, octal, decimal, signed/unsigned integers of various widths, and various character set representations (Latin-1, UTF-8 sequences, UTF-16, etc...). d) A killer feature would be the ability to view raw offsets on the disk (disk editor functionality). For instance, I'd like to be able to view the first 512 bytes of my hard drive (the Master Boot Record), which is represented nowhere as a file object. Probably a good idea to view this as read-only! :D e) Another killer feature would be the ability to specify templates, so that I could annotate and describe segments of data in a file. ResEdit had TMPL resources to do this, which were simple and elegant ways of visualizing data structures. All in all, I like where Hex Fiend is headed, and can't wait to see future versions of this project!
Like
Version 2.0
1 answer(s)
Pi3
Pi3
27 January 2011
Most of what you asked for is realized in Synalyze It! already (except the offsets on disk and font sizes). Please give me (the author) feedback and suggestions :)
Like
Mutant
Mutant
30 July 2009
Nice simple editor, but needs big/little endian support.. Unless I'm just completely missing it.
Like (1)
Version 1.1
Joansampieri
Joansampieri
26 May 2009
One Word Awesome.. My Favorite To Crack.
Like (1)
Version 1.1
2 answer(s)
-M-S-
-M-S-
26 May 2009
why crack?
Like
Version 1.1
Calonboss
Calonboss
26 May 2009
a Challenge With My Friend. to get something new.
Like (1)
Version 1.1
Free

4.8

App requirements: 
  • Intel 64
  • OS X 10.8.0 or later
Category: 

Development

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Editors

Developer Website: 
ridiculous_fish
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