CorelDRAW

File Format
Name	CorelDRAW
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics CorelDRAW
Extension(s)	.cdr, .cdt, .cdx, .cpx, .csl ,.pat
PRONOM	fmt/430, others

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 / 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
Drawing X7		CDRH
Drawing X8		CDRJ
Drawing 2017		CDRK
Drawing 2018		CDRL
Drawing 2019		CDRM
Drawing 2020		CDRN
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.

• 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

• libcdr
• LibreOffice
• unoconv

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

Links

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