In 1987, Corel engineers Michel Bouillon and Pat Beirne undertook to develop a vector-based illustration program to bundle with their desktop publishing systems. That program, CorelDraw, was initially released in 1989.[1] CorelDraw 1.x and 2.x ran under Windows 2.x and 3.0. CorelDraw 3.0 came into its own with Microsoft's release of Windows 3.1. The inclusion of TrueType in Windows 3.1 transformed CorelDraw into a serious illustration program capable of using system-installed outline fonts without requiring third-party software such as Adobe Type Manager; paired with a photo-editing program (Corel Photo-Paint), a font manager, Corel Capture, and several other pieces of software, it was also part of the first all-in-one graphics suite.[2]
Envelope tool (for distorting text or objects using a primary shape), Blend (for morphing shapes), Extrusion (for simulating perspective and volume in objects) and Perspective (to distort objects along X and Y axes). CorelDraw for Unix also became available.[5][6]
Included Corel Photo-Paint asp (for bitmap editing), CorelSHOW (for creating on-screen presentations), CorelCHART (for graphic charts), Mosaic and CorelTRACE (for vectorizing bitmaps). The inclusion of this software was the precedent for the actual graphic suites.[8] CorelDraw for Unix also became available.[9][10] The fonts bundled with CorelDraw are no longer in the proprietary Corel format WFN, but in Type 1 PostScript fonts and TTF TrueType formats.
This is the last version which was made for Windows 3.x. Corel Ventura was included in the suite (and then sold as a separate program); it was a desktop publishing application akin to PageMaker, Quark XPress, or InDesign.
This is the first version which was made for 32-bit Windows, and the first for Macintosh.[15] New features were customizable interface, Polygon, Spiral, Knife and Eraser tools. Corel Memo, Corel Presents, Corel Motion 3D, Corel Depth, Corel Multimedia Manager, Corel Font Master and Corel DREAM (for 3D modelling) were included in the suite.
Context-sensitive Property bar, Print Preview with Zoom and Pan options, Scrapbook (for viewing a drag-and-dropping graphic objects), Publish to HTML option, Draft and Enhanced display options, Interactive Fill and Blend tools, Transparency tools, Natural Pen tool, Find & Replace wizard, Convert Vector to Bitmap option (inside Draw), Spell checker, Thesaurus and Grammar checker. The suite included Corel Scan and Corel Barista (a Java-based document exchange format).
Digger selection, Docker windows, Interactive Distortion, 3D, Envelope and tools, Realistic Dropshadow tool, interactive color mixing, color palette editor, guidelines as objects, custom-sized pages, duotone support. Corel Versions was included in the suite. A free, feature-limited promotional version called CorelDRAW 8 LE was later offered for Power Macintosh.[18]
Mesh fill tool (for complex color filling), Artistic Media tool, Publish to PDF features, embedded ICC color profiles, Multiple On-screen Color Palettes and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications 6 support. The suite included Canto Cumulus LE, a piece of software for media management. The Macintosh version was dropped in advance of the release of OS X.
Double click Crop tool (the first vector software able to crop groups of vectors and bitmap images at the same time), Smart fill tool, Chamfer/Fillet/Scallop/Emboss tool, Image Adjustment Lab. Trace became integrated inside Draw under the name PowerTrace.
Whatthefont font identification service linked inside CorelDraw, ConceptShare, Table tool, independent page layers, live text formatting, support for RAW camera files.[26]
Built-in content organizer (CorelConnect), CD, web graphics and animation tools, multi-core performance improvement, digital content (professional fonts, clip arts, and photos), object hinting, pixel view, enhanced Mesh tool with transparency options, added touch support, and new supported file formats.[28] It has developed Transformation, which makes multiple copies of a single object.
For the first time, OpenType versions of Helvetica, Frutiger, Futura and Garamond #3 font families (32 fonts total) from Linotype foundry are included instead of the Bitstream counterparts. All but Garamond are in OpenType Pro format.[29]
64-bit and multi-core processor native support. Support for 64-bit Adobe Photoshop plugins. More tools to import and export from Adobe Creative Suite and Publisher. Object properties, styles, and color styling consolidated into their own docking toolbars (Dockers). A new Unicode OpenType-based text engine modernizes text handling, including full international language support (the legacy text mode is retained). Dynamic alignment guides allow for easy repositioning without setting static guidelines. CorelConnect content organizer allows for in-app access to online sources such as Flickr for image and clip art assets. New tools for pushing, pulling, smearing, etc. vector objects. Improvements in frame-based layout, masking, clipping and effects.[32]
New default workspaces for illustrators, beginners, and other user roles; new training videos. New tabbed documents can break out of main window, making multi-screen work easier. A few more retouching and fill tools, additional color harmony and QR code generating tools. New Guidelines Dockers continued the migration of tools away from dependence on pull-down menus.
Corel X7 introduced 30-day and 365-day rentals (subscriptions) as an alternative to buying a perpetual license. Corel Content Exchange, an online source for fonts, fill patterns and other materials, required continuing payments for access to the full range of content.[34]
Added new Font List selection filtering system; Corel Font Manager replaced Bitstream Font Navigator. Ability to hide objects and groups, not just layers. Possible to copy and paste portions of curve segments. Adjacent node selection, improved Knife tool, photo retouching Healing tool, improved perspective correction tool, improved (Gaussian) feathering on drop shadows, and automated camera effects such as bokeh and sepia. Startup and feature tours; enhanced Hints. Border and Grommet and Canvas Prep and Stretch tools for large format and commercial print applications. High-resolution displays became officially supported with new scalable icons and UI elements. First version to fully support Windows 10.[36]
Includes a suite of collaboration tools, including Copy editing, a Comments Docker, Annotation tools, and Cloud client sharing. Microsoft and Google GSuite sign-ons are supported.
Features include new AI-assisted PowerTRACE, bitmap upsampling, and bitmap artifact compression removal; new Stylized effects such as Pastel and Woodcut; nondestructive (lens) bitmap effects; another edge-finding mask tool; improved search and replace; and sliders to adjust OpenType variable fonts (Windows only).[42]
Includes new Perspective Drawing, Multipage View, Pages docker/inspector, Autofit Page, Adjustments docker/inspector, Replace Colors, Multi-asset export and enhanced collaboration tools.
A mid-year update added a few features such as live comments and collaboration, but was offered only to subscribers.[44][45]
8 March 2022
2022
(24.0-24.2)
15 to 24.0
15 to 24.0
Windows 10, 11,
MacOS
Includes more non-destructive photo editing and filters, combined photo editing features with presets, new templates, a new multipage tool, and more multiple-format exports. New features are offered only to subscribers.[46]
7 March 2023
2023
(24.3)
15 to 24.3
15 to 24.3
Windows 10, 11,
or MacOS 12, 13
Includes new curve-editing tools, updated Pantone support, and bug fixes. Additional design templates were added for subscription users, while the one-time purchase option was reinstated.
† CorelDraw 10 to X4 can open files of version 3 and later, but certain features may not be supported.
‡ The list of file formats that CorelDraw 10 to X4 can write may not be complete in this table.
CorelDRAW was originally developed for Microsoft Windows 2.1, and versions existed for Windows 3.1x, CTOS, OS/2, and Power Macintosh. With the release of Corel Linux, CorelDRAW 9 was released with package support for Debian and Red Hat-based Linux.[47] Version 11 was released for Mac OS X in 2001, but was then discontinued on both Linux and Mac. CorelDRAW was available only for Windows until the 2019 version became the first to support macOS.[48][49][50]
As of 2021,[update] CorelDRAW Graphics Suite supports Windows 10, Windows 11, and macOS, including a new release for Apple silicon.[51] A related web app and iPad app offers collaboration and markup online. In 2024, a new trial version was released available directly in the browser.[52]
Scripting
With version 6, Corel introduced task automation using a proprietary scripting language, Corel SCRIPT. Support for VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macros was added in version 9,[53] and Corel SCRIPT was eventually deprecated. Support for VSTA (Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications) has been integrated in Windows versions since X5,[30] and currently requires Visual Studio 2017.[54] Version 2019 added Javascript as an option for cross-platform scripting with MacOS support; however, the built-in IDE does not support it as of 2020.[55]
File format
CorelDraw file format
Hex dump of the header of a CDR file as RIFF container, written with version 3
In its first versions, the CDR file format was a completely proprietaryfile format primarily used for vector graphic drawings, recognizable by the first two bytes of the file being "WL". Starting with CorelDraw 3, the file format changed to a Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) envelope, recognizable by the first four bytes of the file being "RIFF", and a "CDR*vrsn" in bytes 9 to 15, with the asterisk "*" being just a blank in early versions.[57] Beginning with CorelDraw 4 it included the version number of the writing program in hexadecimal ("4" meaning version 4, "D" meaning version 13). The actual data chunk of the RIFF remains a Corel proprietary format.
From version X4 (14) on, the CDR file is a ZIP-compressed directory of several files, among them XML files and the RIFF-structured riffdata.cdr with the familiar version signature in versions X4 (CDREvrsn) and X5 (CDRFvrsn), and a root.dat with CorelDraw X6, where the bytes 9 to 15 look slightly different – "CDRGfver" in a file created with X6. "F" was the last valid hex digit, and the "fver" now indicates that the letter before no longer represents a hex digit.
There is no publicly available CDR file format specification.[58][59]
Other CorelDraw file formats include CorelDraw Compressed (CDX), CorelDraw Template (CDT)[60] and Corel Presentation Exchange (CMX).[61]
Use of CDR files in other programs
In December 2006, the sK1open-source project team started to reverse-engineer the CDR format.[62] The results and the first working snapshot of the CDR importer were presented at the Libre Graphics Meeting 2007 conference taking place in May 2007 in Montreal (Canada).[63] Later on the team parsed the structure of other Corel formats with the help of the open source CDR Explorer.[64] As of 2008, the sK1 project claims to have the best import support for CorelDraw file formats among open source software programs. The sK1 project also developed the UniConvertor, a command line open source tool which supports conversion from CorelDraw ver.7-X4 formats (CDR/CDT/CCX/CDRX/CMX) to other formats. UniConvertor is also used in the Inkscape and Scribus open source projects as an external tool for importing CorelDraw files.[65][66][67]
In 2007, Microsoft blocked CDR file format in Microsoft Office 2003 with the release of Service Pack 3 for Office 2003.[68][69] Microsoft later apologized for inaccurately blaming the CDR file format and other formats for security problems in Microsoft Office and released some tools for solving this problem.[70]
In 2012, the joint LibreOffice/re-lab team implemented libcdr, a library for reading CDR files from version 7 to X3 and CMX files.[71] The library has extensive support for shapes and their properties, including support for color management and spot colors, and has a basic support for text.[72] The library provides a built-in converter to SVG, and a converter to OpenDocument is provided by writerperfect package. The libcdr library is used in LibreOffice starting from version 3.6,[73] and thanks to public API it can be freely used by other applications.
^"Visio2000: File Formats That Can Be Imported into Visio". Retrieved 2010-12-01. You can import the following file formats into your Visio drawings: CorelDraw! Drawing File versions 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 (.cdr), Corel Clipart (.cmx)
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