Can Illustrator CC open native CorelDraw files ?

Since this old thread got bumped it's worth giving an update on the capability of Illustrator to import CorelDRAW CDR files.

Illustrator's CDR import capability is worthless to anyone who currently uses CorelDRAW.

The past few versions of CorelDRAW cannot save down to file versions earlier than 15 (aka version X5). Earlier versions of CorelDRAW that can save back as far as 10 will not run on Windows 10 or 11 (or Mac OSX either). By the way, version 10 of CorelDRAW was released back in November of 2000.

I don't understand why the developers at Corel (or "Alludo") decided on severely limiting how far back CorelDRAW users can save CDR files. Illustrator can save AI and EPS files down as far as versions 8 and 3. Newer versions of CorelDRAW won't open or import old CDR files made before version 6; so that's another problem for anyone who has a lot old archive CDR files. Illustrator will open any AI file, even if the file was created back in the late 1980's. When people export paths from Photoshop they're essentially saving an ancient version AI file.

Even if someone had CDR files that could technically open in Illustrator the import capability was pretty iffy at best. I can recall having to completely remove a Creative Suite installation and reinstall it after trying to open a CDR file directly in Illustrator; the attempt at opening the CDR file damaged the Illustrator installation. The only work-able solution for anyone needing to move artwork from CorelDRAW over to Illustrator is to use Corel's Illustrator export filter. Other export formats like EPS could be used, but the AI CS6 export filter tends to deliver the least bad results.

Various things in an Illustrator AI file exported by CorelDRAW often have to be repaired once the AI file is opened in Illustrator. Sometimes items like gradient fills can get messed up. Corel's AI export filter will rasterize any gradient fill that has levels of transparency in it. That's no good. The line spacing in live text objects will be screwed up when the Corel-generated AI file is opened in Illustrator. The only fix for that is creating a new Illustrator document, and from within that new document making similar text objects with the same type styling as those in the badly affected document. The fixed text objects are copied/pasted over into the Corel-generated AI document. Then the eye dropper tool can be used to copy those repaired styles onto the badly glitched text objects. That process can waste a good chunk of time.

Oh, but it gets even better. The current version of Illustrator (29) and the beta version of Illustrator (30) will not even open an AI file exported by CorelDRAW if the file has any live text objects.

When the file is opened Illustrator displays a dialog box saying: "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 is just blank. Nothing comes in at all. The only solution around this is by having a copy of Illustrator 28 installed. The Corel-generated AI file will open there (with the line spacing in text objects all glitched of course). Once the Corel-generated AI file is re-saved in Illustrator 28 it will open in Illustrator 29 and the beta 30 version. Illustrator 28 is available to install for now, but it won't be once all the new CC apps are officially rolled out at the end of this month.

This is a really bad work flow problem. CorelDRAW has been popular in the sign industry for decades; many of us in this industry have to use that app and Adobe CC apps together (CorelDRAW stinks at generating files for large format printing work). CorelDRAW is also popular with screen printers and people who do embroidery work. The app also gets used in some other niche fields. The developers for CorelDRAW need to do some serious improvements on the app's AI export filter. But the developers for Illustrator obviously changed something in how Illustrator reads AI files between AI versions 28 and 29. We're basically getting to the point where there is hardly any way to move artwork from CorelDRAW into Illustrator. If Illustrator is going to have any sort of CDR import capability the import filter needs to support modern CDR versions, not a version released 25 years ago.

Finally, I'd also suggest this problem is definitely not solved. I don't know if that should mean a new discussion thread regarding CorelDRAW to Illustrator work flows or changing the solved/unsolved status on this thread.

All fille open coraldraw9 

Yes Adobe Illustrator CC cannot open native CorelDRAW (CDR) files. First you need to turn them into PDF EPS or SVG using CorelDRAW.

Hi, the best way to solve your problem is to open CorelDraw files in CorelDraw, then export them as an Adobe Illustrator files.

Adobe illustrator can open CorelDraw files from version 5 to version 10 only.

some times we need to install programs that we don't use just to finalize our work process in an efficient way.

I wish my answer was helpful.

Thank you

Illustrator will open CDR up to version 10.

You might have better success exporting your files as AI from CorelDraw as long as you still have it installed.