Participant

Question

Converting CDR file to AI Illustrator

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
January 2, 2024
5 replies
14005 views

I am trying to convert a CDR (CorelDraw) file to AI (Illustrator) but each time i convert it using CorelDraw it doesn't seem to open in Illustrator. The latest version I can convert it to using Corel is Illustrator CS6 and the file is over 500mb.

Could someone please offer any suggestions?

Windows

S

saiyed_0747

Participant

ok

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Have you tried:

Simply opening it in Illustrator? It can open CDR files.

Exporting it from CorelDRAW. (If this is what you tried, do you use the Open menu in Illustator or simply double-click the file?)

Export as PDF and open in Illustrator?

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

Adobe Illustrator cannot open or place CDR files. Several versions ago (I don't remember exactly when) there was a time, briefly, when Illustrator could open/import CDR files. I remember the import filter crashing my installation of Illustrator so badly I had to completely uninstall all of my Creative Suite apps, clean any references of the apps and then reinstall just to get things operational again. That CDR import filter in Illustrator vanished not long after that.

AFAIK, Inkscape is the only vector graphics application outside of CorelDRAW that can import CDR files. And its capabilities at importing CorelDRAW artwork are somewhat limited. OTOH, it can import early version CDR files made before CorelDRAW 6, which is something modern versions of CorelDRAW strangely cannot do.

For the time being anyone trying to move artwork from CorelDRAW into Illustrator has to use Corel's Illustrator CS6 export filter. The problems don't end there either.

The past few builds of Illustrator, including the current version (29.5.1) and beta build (29.6.180) will not open an Illustrator file exported out of CorelDRAW if the file has any live text objects in it. The familiar "Illustrator could partially open this file" error box will be displayed; all that will open is a blank document. The only work-around for this is by having a version 28 build of Illustrator installed. The Corel-exported AI file has to be opened in that version of Illustrator and then re-saved in order for it to open successfully in a version 29 build of Illustrator.

And then even in an Illustrator 28 build, an AI file made by CorelDRAW will still have some problems. Live text objects often have line spacing utterly corrupted. The trick around that is by creating a new Illustrator document and making text objects similar to those in the Corel-exported AI file. Copy the fresh text objects with proper line spacing into the Corel-exported document. Use the eyedropper tool to copy the properties of the good text objects over the bad ones.

PDF files exported from CorelDRAW are not very edit-friendly. Sometimes the live text objects will open with line spacing and tracking looking proper. But the text strings may be broken apart in many separate segments. Third party plugins like Vector First Aid can fix those problems to some degree.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Exporting EPS files from CorelDRAW to open in Illustrator doesn't work all that well lately. Graphics objects and basic fills usually convert okay. Live text objects get corrupted in various ways. I think the problem is the EPS filter in CorelDRAW is outdated. I doubt it has proper support for OpenType fonts, much less Variable Fonts.

The Illustrator CS6 export filter in CorelDRAW is currently the least bad option for exporting art into Illustrator.

Re: EPS. I agree. What I found is, over the years, if you realllly had to convert a CDR to Illustrator, it might take a multi-prong approach and assemble the best bits form each way.

Yes, the "best" is exporting to Illustrator from CorelDraw.

The next best is exporting a high-res full PDF and opening that in Illustrator.

The worst (in my experience) was opening CDR in Illustrator. Too many objects did not come in.

But between the three, you might get all the pieces you need. The first two require having CorelDraw, of course, so you are very limited if all you have at your disposal is Illustrator's old import filter.

EPS is the fallback, but of course that requires flattening, (and can take forever to export) which will create a very complex file of many little bits, and color management issues, but it WILL look like the printed result. Still. not what you want to work with going forward.

Personally, for the complex CDR, I would separate the true vector items (like text that needs edits, etc) from the more illustrative parts, then render that portion as a bitmap and make a base layer out of that.

In my role as a pre-press guy, what we would often do with supplied files is literally export them as a high-res (600 dpi) TIF from CorelDraw and be done with it! 🙂

O

Oluokun5E44

Participant

You can try exporting each page as SVG File open new file on Adobe Illustrator then paste them there, its time cosuming though if you're working with multiple pages of documents but it literarilly solve the problem.

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

I don't recommend using SVG as an intermediary exchange format to pass content from CorelDRAW to Adobe Illustratror. Lots of things in the artwork will break. For one thing SVG has no native support for CMYK. Certain kinds of other fills can effects will be expanded, flattened or even turned into pixel-based objects.

Currently the only approach that works (sort of) for exporting CorelDRAW artwork into Illustrator is using Corel's Illustrator AI export filter and choosing CS6 format. The filter can export a multi-page CorelDRAW document into Illustrator with the pages on multiple art boards.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

So you have an older version of CorelDRAW?

What's in the file?

S

Sukhi34547816zm8kAuthor

Participant

CorelDraw 2022 version 24.0.0.301

The file is a full marketing book created in Corel which is why the size is so large. When converting I have had to do it in 2 parts as it only allows 100 pages per time

Monika Gause

Community Expert

It's a particularly bad idea to continue editing this kind of work in Illustrator.

Do yourself a favour and output this as a PDF and then use something like this (this is not free) to get your file into InDesign https://markzware.com/products/pdf2dtp/

davescm

Community Expert

Hi , I've moved your post from the Photoshop forum to the Illustrator forum where you are more likely to get help with your issue.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded