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Illustrator: how to import Corel Draw files?

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I have a Corel Draw file and I open it in Illustrator, but it doesn't work. Is there a way to solve this problem?

Participant

Necro-post I know, but I wanted to share what I discovered after several hours fighting with this today:

I've always had the best luck exporting as PDF, because just about anything can open a PDF, and unlike EPS or SVG, there arent issues with transparency or different programs saving at different DPI. Never had issues gettign AI to open Corel PDFs until earlier this week, when all of a sudden files from Corel would not open correctly in AI, no mater what format I saved/exported them in. Well cut to about a week later, the solution is as dumb as the problem: Open the PDF file in Acrobat, go to "save-as", and resave the PDF with default settings, under the same filename. For whatever reason, that fixes it, and lets AI import everything just fine.

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helpful_perspective38b4

Participant

Current versions of Illustrator can’t open CorelDRAW (.cdr) files. Older versions could only import files from very early versions of CorelDRAW, and CDR is a closed format that Adobe doesn’t support today. That’s why the file won’t open. You first need to convert the CDR into a format Illustrator can read, such as SVG, PDF, EPS or AI.

Option 1: If you have CorelDRAW (best quality)

Open the file in CorelDRAW.
Before exporting, select all text and convert it to curves (Ctrl+Q) so fonts don’t get swapped.
Go to File > Export (or Save As) and choose AI, PDF or EPS.
If you choose AI, pick an older compatibility version (for example AI CS or v8) for better results.
Open the exported file in Illustrator.

Option 2: Without CorelDRAW, use Inkscape (free)
Inkscape can open .cdr files directly. Open the file, check that it looks right, then use File > Save As and choose PDF or Plain SVG. Open that file in Illustrator.

Option 3: Online conversion
If you only need the file quickly, you can convert CDR to SVG online with RunConvert (https://www.runconvert.com/cdr-to-svg): upload the .cdr, convert it to SVG and download it. Then open the SVG in Illustrator (File > Open).

Tips after importing

Check for missing fonts (Type > Resolve Missing Fonts) if you didn’t convert text to curves.
Gradients, effects, lenses and PowerClips from CorelDRAW may not convert perfectly. Check them carefully and rebuild them if needed.
If colors look off, check Edit > Assign Profile and the document color mode (CMYK or RGB).
If an embedded image goes missing, export it separately from CorelDRAW and place it again.

Hope this helps!

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Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

Round-tripping .CDR files thru Inkscape to port SVG files into Illustrator is a lot easier said than done. So many things in the artwork can break along the way. The SVG format on its own has serious limitations (no CMYK support for one thing). While Inkscape can open certain CorelDRAW .CDR files its success of doing so is not really all that great. I've experimented with using Inkscape to open really old .CDR files (version 5 or earlier) and the results after opening the file are usually a mess.

I don't know what kind of drugs the people at Corel were taking to decide it would be a good idea to cut off file>open/import support of .CDR files made before version 6. Thankfully Adobe has never done that with Illustrator files. You can open .AI files 30+ years old in the current version of Illustrator. The only pain point is if the old file has text objects styled in Postscript Type 1 fonts. At least the file will open.

A number of elements in CorelDRAW-based artwork are not export-friendly.

Exported .AI files from CorelDRAW that contain any live text elements will not open in versions of Illustrator later than version 28. An error box will be displayed. An empty document is all that will open. The file has to be opened in a version 28 or earlier build of Illustrator and then re-saved to open in a current GA build of Illustrator. Even then the type objects have to be repaired due to line spacing glitches. It can be worth trying to convert all the type objects to outlines in the CorelDRAW document before exporting in .AI format and then using the Retype feature in Illustrator to re-build those outlined type objects. But that’s also a kind of hit or miss process.

Any CorelDRAW artwork that has complex transparency effects, such as varying levels of transparency on gradient fills, will be rasterized in an exported .AI file. The gradient fills on such objects must be made 100% opaque for the vector objects and their fills to be retained. The transparency levels have to be re-built within Illustrator.

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Jake_Mathew2896

Participant

If you're looking for a service that can handle those less common vector conversions, you might want to check out Picspectra. They offer a dedicated CDR to AI conversion path, which can save a lot of manual steps.

You can find their tool here: CDR to AI Converter by Picspectra

This approach helps preserve the vector data, minimizing any cleanup needed in Illustrator. Good luck!

[link removed by moderator]

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Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

That web site says nothing about conversions of CorelDRAW CDR files into Adobe Illustrator AI format.

Currently there is a big problem involving the task of exporting CorelDRAW artwork to Adobe Illustrator. The version 29 and 30 builds of Illustrator will not open any .AI file saved/exported by CorelDRAW if the .AI file has any live text objects in it. When those versions of Illustrator attempt to open the .AI file an error box will be displayed: "Illustrator could partially read this file. We recovered as much of the file as possible, but some content might be missing. Open to view the recovered file." When the file is opened the document will be blank.

Illustrator 28.7.10 can open such Corel-generated .AI files successfully. I think that build is no longer available to install via the CC Desktop App. I would open the Corel-generated .AI file in Illustrator 28, re-save the .AI file and then be able to open it successfully in Illustrator 29.

Within CorelDRAW it doesn't seem to matter which Illustrator format is chosen for file export, be it version CS6 (the latest version the filter supports) or an older version like Illustrator 8. The exported .AI file will not open in Illustrator 29 or 30. CorelDRAW can export vector art in other formats like EPS or PDF, but those formats have other technical problems when the artwork is opened in Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator can import CorelDRAW CDR files, but only if they're saved in old version formats, 5 thru 10. The past few versions of CorelDRAW can't down-save CDR files any earlier than version X3. And the past few versions of CorelDRAW won't open CDR files made in CorelDRAW 5 or earlier.

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taylorp32681803Correct answer

Participant

Necro-post I know, but I wanted to share what I discovered after several hours fighting with this today:

I've always had the best luck exporting as PDF, because just about anything can open a PDF, and unlike EPS or SVG, there arent issues with transparency or different programs saving at different DPI. Never had issues gettign AI to open Corel PDFs until earlier this week, when all of a sudden files from Corel would not open correctly in AI, no mater what format I saved/exported them in. Well cut to about a week later, the solution is as dumb as the problem: Open the PDF file in Acrobat, go to "save-as", and resave the PDF with default settings, under the same filename. For whatever reason, that fixes it, and lets AI import everything just fine.

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ucreatecrhis

Participant

Seems no one answered this question. I found a solution....8 years later
Zamzar - video converter, audio converter, image converter, eBook converter Free converter for multiple file options that actually worked.

The free Cloudconvert convert anything to anything - CloudConvert as mentioned before works too, but with limited output options.

The bigger questions is why anyone still uses Corel draw im sure its much better than when I used ti 20 years ago.

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Monika Gause

Community Expert

I'm using Illustrator CS5 for MAC, I don't have Corew. I have no idea how the .cdr was saved, and I'm getting the same alert message as thejimmywalter

Try this:

https://cloudconvert.org/

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coa01

Participant

ConvertOnline lets you convert anything to anything – quickly, easily, and without limiting your output options.

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Filipe0513

Participant

I'm using Illustrator CS5 for MAC, I don't have Corew. I have no idea how the .cdr was saved, and I'm getting the same alert message as thejimmywalter

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sawduster

Participant

FWIW, I was trying to import an AI14 file into Corel Draw X4 this morning and kept getting a corrupted file error. This happens often when bringing in the AI files, but it's never consistent and sometimes error messages are different. I went to the X4 Help menu, updated to Service Pack 2, and then the file imported perfectly.

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markerline

Inspiring

That's what I was trying to describe with CDRaw and AI compatibility. You needed the service pack from Corel in order for it to read the newer AI files. Otherwise you would have only been able to open AI CS3 files and below.

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R

Red83Author

Participating Frequently

ok ok you are right!

I use Corel Draw 12 and Illustrator CS3...

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markerline

Inspiring

But you still haven't answered JETalmage's question of whether you are using compressed files (which until his post I was not even aware that CorelDraw was capable of that option for file saving) . . .

In normal cases you would simply use the Open command on the File menu to open CDR files which would then come into AI as "[converted]". Any changes made to the file would be saved as Illustrator format. But if you want to work with Corel afterwards then you would be sure to save in a lower version of AI that your version of Corel is capable of opening. Otherwise you get a "unknown file type" error, or something to that effect.

-markerline

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JETalmage

Inspiring

If the Draw file was saved with the compression option turned on, Illustrator cannot open it.

But as Scott said, anyone who tries to answer your post is just guessing. You haven't provided enough info.

JET

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markerline

Inspiring

Illustrator CS5, fyi, can open CorelDraw X5 and any previous versions, given that the file is not corrupted (not sure about Mac CorelDraw files though, just speaking from Windows experience).

But

CorelDraw X5 can only open up to Illustrator CS4 as far as I know, based on experiences with prior C.D. versions--it's usually one version less than the current Adobe version.

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Silkrooster

Legend

Interesting, glad to see the import and export options on both programs have been updated.

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