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.
Contents |
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 / Version | Ext. | RIFF type | PRONOM | Filter ID | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Drawing 1.0 | .cdr | n/a | fmt/467 | ||
Drawing 2.0 | n/a | fmt/466 | |||
Drawing 3.0 | CDR |
x-fmt/379 | |||
Drawing 4.0 | CDR4 |
fmt/465 | |||
Drawing 5.0 | CDR5 |
fmt/464 | |||
Drawing 6.0 | CDR6 |
x-fmt/29 | |||
Drawing 7.0 | CDR7 |
x-fmt/291 | |||
Drawing 8.0 | CDR8 |
x-fmt/292 | |||
Drawing 8.0 Bidi | cdr8 |
||||
Drawing 9.0 | CDR9 |
x-fmt/374 | |||
Drawing 10.0 | CDRA |
x-fmt/375 | |||
Drawing 11.0 | CDRB |
x-fmt/378 | |||
Drawing 12.0 | CDRC |
fmt/427 | |||
Drawing 12.5 | DESC |
Only template | |||
Drawing X3 | CDRD |
fmt/428 | |||
Drawing X4 | CDRE |
fmt/429 | |||
Drawing X5 | CDRF |
fmt/430 | |||
Drawing X6 | .dat | CDRG |
In ZIP CDR Container, content/root.dat | ||
Drawing X7 | CDRH |
||||
Drawing X8 | CDRJ |
||||
Drawing 2017 | CDRK |
||||
Drawing 2018 | CDRL |
||||
Drawing 2019 | CDRM |
||||
Drawing 2020 | CDRN |
||||
Drawing 2021 | CDRO |
||||
Drawing 2022 | CDRP |
||||
Drawing 2023 | CDRQ |
||||
Template | .cdt .cdrt | x-fmt/30 | Often same RIFF type as Drawing, but RIFF type CDST is used for version 4.4 and created by newer software start with RIFF type CDT and use cdrt extension | ||
Compressed Drawing | .cdx | x-fmt/31 | CorelID=0x704 | ||
Presentation Exchange 5.0 | .cmx | CMX1 |
x-fmt/34 | CorelID=0x702 | See main article: CMX |
Presentation Exchange 6+ | x-fmt/35 | CorelID=0x701 | |||
CMX Compressed | .cpx | x-fmt/36 | CorelID=0x705 | ||
CCX Clipart | .ccx | CDRX |
See main article: CCX (Corel) | ||
Pattern | .pat | x-fmt/76 | Same as .cdr format? | ||
Symbol Library | .csl | CSL? |
Same as .cdr format? Start with RIFF type CSL. Numeric version after vrsn tag does not match version digit at offset 11. |
Format description
Early CorelDraw files are of an undocumented proprietary format where the first two bytes spell WL
in ASCII. Later formats were based on RIFF, with RIFF
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[1].
- 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 "
CDRCOMP1
" - ArtShow 6 & 7 (File formats supported: CPX) Header begins with "
CDRCOMP2
"
See also
- CCX (Corel)
- CMX
- CorelChart
- CorelMOSAIC library
- CorelMOVE
- Corel R.A.V.E.
- SHW (Corel)
- WFN (font format)
Software
Sample files
- http://cd.textfiles.com/monstmedia/CLIPART/ → *.CDR
- http://cd.textfiles.com/1stcanadian/graphics/cor2help/
- http://cd.textfiles.com/somuch/smsharew/CLIPART/1992CALS.ZIP
- http://cd.textfiles.com/ccbwindows93/CORELDRA/
- https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/cdr/
- https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/archive/corelThumbnails/ → *.cdx
- https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/corelDrawPattern/
Links
- Wikipedia: CorelDRAW
- History of Corel
- sK1 program attempts to reverse-engineer CorelDRAW format
- Corel DRAW X6 file format subdued by libcdr