CorelDRAW

CorelDRAW is a vector graphics drawing program. Its native file format is generally found in .cdr files, but other extensions exist for variants of it. The format has gone through several major revisions over the years.

Identifiers

 * .cdr: Normal CorelDRAW file
 * .cdt: Template
 * .cdx: Compressed file
 * .cmx: Corel Presentation Exchange Format
 * .ccx: Compressed .cmx; see CCX (Corel)
 * .cpx: Corel Presentation Exchange Compressed Format (?)
 * .csl: Corel Symbol Library

Format description
Early CorelDraw files are of an undocumented proprietary format where the first two bytes spell  in ASCII. Later formats were based on RIFF, with  as the first four bytes and a version identifier in bytes 9 to 15. Til version 15 at offset 12 four character identifier vrsn occur, followed by the 32-bit integer 2 for chunk size and a 2 byte chunk content. The value of the content is calculated by sum of major version number multiplied by 100 and minor version number. From version 16 at offset 12 four character identifier fver occur, followed by the 32-bit integer 16 for chunk size and a 16 bytes chunk content. The byte before the last byte of this chunk contains the major version number and the byte before contains the minor version number. The inner details (the data chunk of the RIFF version) remain proprietary.

Compressed formats, .CPX & .CDX are open/import only filters in versions of CorelDraw from version 6 on. Support for CDX was dropped after X6. Released as compressed formats on the Corel ArtShow CD's during the 1990's.


 * ArtShow 91 (File formats supported: CDR, PCX, DIB, MID)
 * ArtShow 3 (File formats supported: BMP, CDR, PCX, PCD)
 * ArtShow 4 (File formats supported: BMP, CD_, PCX, PCD) .CD_ files use SZDD compression.
 * ArtShow 5 (File formats supported: CDX) Header begins with ""
 * ArtShow 6 & 7 (File formats supported: CPX) Header begins with ""

Software

 * libcdr
 * LibreOffice
 * unoconv
 * coreldraw_cdr.ksy KaiTai structure

Sample files

 * → *.CDR
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/cdr/
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/archive/corelThumbnails/ → *.cdx
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/corelDrawPattern/
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/cdr/
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/archive/corelThumbnails/ → *.cdx
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/corelDrawPattern/

Links

 * CorelDRAW
 * History of Corel
 * sK1 program attempts to reverse-engineer CorelDRAW format
 * Corel DRAW X6 file format subdued by libcdr