>>> "hello".encode("hex")
'68656c6c6f'

相应的还可以

>>> '68656c6c6f'.decode("hex")
'hello'

查了一下手册，还有这些codec可用

Codec	Aliases	Operand type	Purpose
base64_codec	base64, base-64	byte string	Convert operand to MIME base64
bz2_codec	bz2	byte string	Compress the operand using bz2
hex_codec	hex	byte string	Convert operand to hexadecimal representation, with two digits per byte
idna		Unicode string	Implements RFC 3490. New in version 2.3. See also encodings.idna
mbcs	dbcs	Unicode string	Windows only: Encode operand according to the ANSI codepage (CP_ACP)
palmos		Unicode string	Encoding of PalmOS 3.5
punycode		Unicode string	Implements RFC 3492. New in version 2.3.
quopri_codec	quopri, quoted-printable, quotedprintable	byte string	Convert operand to MIME quoted printable
raw_unicode_escape		Unicode string	Produce a string that is suitable as raw Unicode literal in python source code
rot_13	rot13	Unicode string	Returns the Caesar-cypher encryption of the operand
string_escape		byte string	Produce a string that is suitable as string literal in python source code
undefined		any	Raise an exception for all conversions. Can be used as the system encoding if no automatic coercion between byte and Unicode strings is desired.
unicode_escape		Unicode string	Produce a string that is suitable as Unicode literal in python source code
unicode_internal		Unicode string	Return the internal representation of the operand
uu_codec	uu	byte string	Convert the operand using uuencode
zlib_codec	zip, zlib	byte string	Compress the operand using gzip

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