A novel and compact elliptic-function bandpass filter is proposed in this letter. The techniques of slot etching and the addition of open stubs are applied to enhance the self-inductance and self-capacitance of hexagonal open-loop resonators. Thus, size reduction and improved transmission performance are obtained. Compared to the performance of the conventional design, the central frequency and insertion loss are reduced by 28% and 3.1 dB, respectively. Measurements show that the proposed filter has a fraction bandwidth of 23% at the central frequency of 1.84 GHz, and its insertion loss in the passband is less than -1.5 dB. The bandpass filter occupies only 12 mm${ imes}$21.2 mm (approximately $0.24{lambda}_g{ imes}0.14{lambda}_g$).