What Is a CDR File? CorelDRAW's Own Drawing, and a Format Nobody Else Fully Reads
A CDR file is vector artwork saved by CorelDRAW. Jump to your question below, or read it through in order.
A CDR file is vector artwork saved by CorelDRAW. Jump to your question below, or read it through in order.
A CDR file is vector artwork saved by CorelDRAW. Paths, curves, text, color, effects and page layout, all in one file that Corel has never documented.
That last part decides everything else on this page. No published specification means no reliable reader outside CorelDRAW, and it means your own old artwork can stop opening.
CorelDRAW has been drawing since January 1989, and CDR is what it saves. Signmakers, print shops, vinyl cutters and engravers run on it, so CDR artwork is everywhere.
CDR holds vector graphics, so the drawing is stored as instructions rather than pixels. Scale a CDR logo to the side of a lorry and the curves stay sharp, because nothing was measured in dots.
What makes CDR different from every other vector format is not the drawing. It is that Corel has published no specification, so everything anybody else knows about CDR was worked out by reading the bytes.
.cdrCorelDRAW is not a Microsoft product. This page said so for years, in a specification table, where readers are least likely to doubt it. CorelDRAW belongs to Corel and always has.
Microsoft appears in this story once, in 2007, when Office 2003 Service Pack 3 blocked CDR files outright. Microsoft later apologised for blaming the format.
Vector paths and Bezier curves first, then text as live editable text, then color in CMYK, RGB, Lab, grayscale and spot inks, which is why print shops like it.
CDR files also carry page geometry for multi-page layouts, layers, transparency, blends and any bitmap you placed. One file can hold business cards or 40 pages of catalogue.
Spot color is the reason CDR survives in print. A design can name an exact Pantone ink rather than approximating it in CMYK, and the CDR carries that name to the press. Exporting to something that drops spot names is how a brand red comes back wrong.
Four unrelated things use .cdr. CorelDRAW artwork, a Mac disc image, raw CD audio and car crash data. Only the first is a graphics format.
Three letters, four formats, no relationship between them. If the rest of this page does not describe your file, this section is why.
| Kind | What it is | Came from |
|---|---|---|
| CorelDRAW drawing | Vector artwork. The rest of this page | CorelDRAW |
| Mac DVD or CD master | A disc image, close enough to ISO that renaming it often works | Disk Utility on macOS |
| Raw CD audio | One ripped track, 44.1 kHz stereo, with no header on the front | CD ripping tools |
| Crash Data Retrieval | Event data pulled from a car's airbag module | Bosch CDR, since 2000 |
Came from a designer, print shop or sign company. Opens to shapes and text. Section 3 onward is about this.
Came off a Mac, out of a CD ripper or out of a vehicle. Nothing below applies, and section 2 is your answer.
The Mac one has a happy ending. A disc image saved as DVD or CD master is close enough to an ISO that renaming the copy to .iso usually opens it on Windows.
Three containers across three eras. Versions 1 and 2 used a format of their own, versions 3 to X3 used RIFF and X4 onward wraps the drawing in ZIP.
CDR packaging has been rebuilt twice in 37 years. The artwork inside stayed proprietary through all of it, which is the part that never changed.
| Versions | Container | Starts with |
|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2, 1989 to 1991 | Corel's own | WL |
| 3 to 13, 1992 to 2006 | RIFF, the same envelope WAV uses | RIFF, then CDR and a version character |
| 14 onward, 2008 to now | ZIP archive | PK, the ZIP signature |
RIFF is a public, ordinary container. That is what let outsiders start reading CDR at all: the wrapper could be walked, even though the chunks inside were a Corel invention.
The switch to ZIP in 2008 was not an opening up. Inside the archive sit XML files, binary .dat files and, on X4 and X5, an ordinary RIFF file called riffData.cdr. The artwork is still in Corel's own chunks. Only the wrapping became readable.
The ZIP layout changed again at X6. X4 and X5 put a single content/riffData.cdr inside the archive. X6 and later split it into content/root.dat, with the chunk payloads in separate content/data/*.dat files. That is why a tool handling X5 can still fail on X6.
CorelDRAW's name and its file version stopped matching in 2006. X3 is version 13, X4 is 14 and CorelDRAW 2026 is version 27. The number decides whether a file opens.
Every CDR carries the version of CorelDRAW that wrote it. Nothing else about the file matters as much, because section 5 turns that number into yes or no.
| Called | Version | Released |
|---|---|---|
| CorelDRAW 12 | 12 | February 2004 |
| X3 | 13 | January 2006 |
| X4 | 14 | January 2008 |
| X5 | 15 | February 2010 |
| X6 | 16 | March 2012 |
| X7 | 17 | March 2014 |
| X8 | 18 | March 2016 |
| 2017 | 19 | April 2017 |
| 2020 | 22 | March 2020 |
| 2021 | 23 | March 2021 |
| 2024 | 25 | March 2024 |
| 2026 | 27 | 6 March 2026 |
The X names ran from 2006 to 2016 and skipped nothing. X3 is 13, X8 is 18. After that Corel went back to years, and the version kept counting.
In RIFF-era files the eleventh byte is the version in hexadecimal. Version 9 reads CDR9vrsn and version 13 reads CDRDvrsn, because D is 13 in hex.
Then Corel ran out of digits. X4 is CDRE and X5 is CDRF, and F is the last hexadecimal digit there is.
X6 needed a G, which is not a hex digit. So Corel changed the four bytes after it instead. An X6 file reads CDRGfver rather than CDRGvrsn, and fver signals that the letter in front has stopped being hexadecimal.
That is the entire trick for identifying an old drawing. Open the file in a hex viewer, read bytes 8 to 15 and character 11 names the version. On a ZIP-era file the same marker is inside the archive, in riffData.cdr or root.dat.
CorelDRAW does not open every older CDR. The floor has moved twice: releases up to 2019 read back to version 7, the 2020 release moved it to 11 and 2021 onward stops at 15.
Most formats only break in one direction. An old program cannot read a new file, which surprises nobody. CDR breaks in the other direction too.
| Release | Reads back to | Which means |
|---|---|---|
| X3 through 2019 | Version 7 | Anything from October 1996 onward |
| 2020, version 22 | Version 11 | Versions 7 to 10 stopped opening |
| 2021 to 2026 | Version 15 | X4 files no longer open |
A drawing saved in CorelDRAW X4 will not open in CorelDRAW 2026. X4 is version 14 and the floor is 15. The file is not damaged, nothing went wrong and the newest release simply declines it.
X5 from 2010 is version 15, so it scrapes in. One release either side of that line decides whether artwork opens.
Search this and you will be told that CorelDRAW reads everything it ever wrote. One file directory ranking for this term still states it under its technical details.
“Each CorelDRAW version opens files from all older versions.”
It was true until the 2020 release and it has not been true since. Corel publishes the supported range with every version, and that range has a bottom.
CorelDRAW can write older versions, through the Version list in its Save dialog. That is the fix when your client runs an older release, and Corel is honest about the price.
“Saving a drawing to a previous version of CorelDRAW may result in loss of certain effects that were not available in the previous version of the application.”
Corel also hears about this. A request on its own ideas portal, titled Cross-version support, opens by saying there is no backwards compatibility between versions of CorelDRAW.
Corel marked it Shipped in September 2024, having added a default save-version setting to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2024. That helps going forward. It does nothing for artwork already sitting in an unreadable version.
CorelDRAW reads everything from version 15 up. Inkscape and LibreOffice Draw read up to X4 through the libcdr library. Adobe Illustrator stops at CorelDRAW 10, from the year 2000.
Every free route into CDR stops somewhere in 2008. That is not pessimism, it is the published support range of every tool that reads CDR.
libcdr came out of a joint LibreOffice and re-lab effort in 2012 and reads CDR versions 7 to X3 plus CMX. Before that, the sK1 project began reverse-engineering CDR in December 2006 and showed the first importer in Montreal in May 2007.
Do not download a free CDR viewer. The artwork itself is data and cannot run anything. The hazard is the search result: free CDR viewer and CDR opener queries lead to installers bundled with adware and worse.
This page used to tell readers to go and find one. Use Inkscape from inkscape.org or LibreOffice from libreoffice.org instead, or ask whoever sent the file for a PDF.
A handful of older programs read early CDR too. Microsoft Visio 2002 handled versions 3 to 7, Macromedia FreeHand took 7 and 8 and Xara still reads early CDR and CMX. All of that is museum territory now.
A CDR from X4 onward is a ZIP archive. Copy the file, rename the copy to .zip and any archive tool opens it. You will not get editable artwork, but you will learn what you are holding.
This is the one practical thing you can do with CDR artwork and no CorelDRAW licence. It costs nothing and answers the first two questions anybody has.
.zip. Windows hides extensions by default, so turn on file name extensions in File Explorer's View menu first.| Written by | The drawing lives in |
|---|---|
| X4 and X5 | content/riffData.cdr, an ordinary RIFF file inside the archive |
| X6 and later | content/root.dat, with the payloads split into content/data/*.dat |
| Every version | XML files describing the document, plus a preview image |
Being a ZIP does not make it open. The XML describes the document, not the drawing. The shapes still sit in Corel's own binary chunks, which is why unzipping a CDR gives you folders rather than artwork.
Rename it back when you are done. Something called logo.zip will not open in CorelDRAW. Nothing inside changed, but CorelDRAW chooses the reader by extension and the archive tool may have altered the copy.
Export while you still can. PDF keeps vectors and text, SVG suits the web and AI or EPS suits a print shop. Every route needs CorelDRAW open, which is the problem with leaving it late.
Section 5 explains why CDR is poor ground for artwork you care about. This is where to put it instead.
| Export to | Keeps | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Vectors, live text, spot color, multiple pages | Archiving. See what a PDF file is | |
| SVG | Vectors and text, in an open standard | The web, and any editor you own |
| AI | Vectors, layers, most effects | An Illustrator studio. See Illustrator artwork files |
| EPS | Vectors and spot colors, no layers | Older print work. See EPS explained |
PDF is the safe default and it is not close. It carries live text, it carries spot ink names through to the press and it has been an ISO standard since 2008.
Export before you need it, not when you need it. Every route above runs inside CorelDRAW. The day you cannot open the CDR is the day you cannot export it either.
A studio with ten years of CDR artwork and one expiring licence has a deadline nobody noticed.
Signmaking and engraving run on CorelDRAW, so plenty of CDR work leaves as machine paths rather than as pictures.
Vinyl cutters and plotters take PLT files, and the HPGL language underneath them is what the cutter actually reads. Both are one-way trips: the path survives, the design does not.
Keep the CDR as well. An export is a copy with something missing. The CDR is your editable original, so archive both and let PDF be the one you can still open in ten years.
Most CDR files that will not open are not damaged. They are the wrong version, the wrong kind of CDR or being opened by something that was never going to read them.
CorelDRAW reports a refused file and a broken one in much the same words, which sends people hunting for repair tools they do not need.
| What you see | What it usually means | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Unsupported or unknown file format | The drawing is older than this release reads | Versions, in section 5 |
| Opens blank, or opens with nothing on the page | Content on a hidden layer, or a failed import | The layers list, then a fresh import |
| Text reflows or changes font | The fonts are not installed on this machine | Ask the sender for the fonts, or a PDF |
| Inkscape or LibreOffice opens an empty page | The file is newer than libcdr reads | Section 6, and the X4 ceiling |
| Your archive tool refuses to unzip it | Older than X4, so it is RIFF rather than ZIP | Section 4, reading the version |
| Genuinely truncated or unreadable | A part copy, a bad transfer or a failed save | The backup, then the sender |
bk_ prefix. One is often the last good copy.Artwork that opens somewhere else is not damaged. If Inkscape reads it and CorelDRAW does not, the file is fine and the version floor refused it. That single test saves a lot of wasted effort.
CorelDRAW writes more than drawings. .cdt and .cdrt are templates, .cdx is a compressed drawing and .cmx is the format Corel built for getting art out.
A CorelDRAW folder rarely holds only CDR files. The neighbours are worth recognising, because one of them is the answer when CDR will not move.
| Extension | Name | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
.cdt | CorelDRAW Template | A reusable layout. Same internal structure as a CDR |
.cdrt | Template, modern | What recent releases write instead of CDT |
.cdx | CorelDRAW Compressed | A drawing squeezed smaller, from the older releases |
.cmx | Corel Metafile Exchange | Built to travel. Corel's own interchange format |
bk_ prefix | Backup | Written beside a drawing while you work |
CMX is the interesting one. Corel designed it for moving artwork between programs, and libcdr reads it alongside CDR, so a CMX from an old job may open when the CDR beside it does not.
Sitting on a folder of old Corel work? Try the CMX and CDT files as well as the CDR. They came from the same drawings, they use the same chunks and free readers treat them alike.
Proprietary, closed and unregistered. There is no published specification, no IANA media type and everything outside CorelDRAW came from reading the bytes.
You do not need this section to open anything. It is here because the gaps in it explain why this page reads the way it does.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Published specification | None. Corel has never released one |
| Media type | None registered with IANA. No Corel type appears in the registry |
| Quoted in the wild | application/vnd.corel-draw, unregistered |
| In the file command | application/x-vnd.corel.draw.document+zip |
| Signature, versions 1 to 2 | WL at offset 0 |
| Signature, versions 3 to 13 | 52 49 46 46, the ASCII RIFF |
| Signature, version 14 onward | 50 4B 03 04, the ZIP signature PK |
| Version marker | Bytes 8 to 15, reading CDR plus a character plus vrsn |
| Color | CMYK, RGB, Lab, grayscale and spot inks |
The unregistered media type is not a detail. Registering one with IANA means describing the format in public, which is the one thing Corel has declined to do for 37 years.
The sK1 project started reading CDR bytes in December 2006 and showed a working importer at the Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal in May 2007. Its UniConvertor tool still feeds Inkscape and Scribus.
libcdr followed in 2012, from LibreOffice and re-lab together. It reads CDR 7 to X3 plus CMX. Photopea later published a written specification, opening with the plain statement that the authors released no public description of the format.
That is why the free readers stop at X4. Nobody is withholding support. Every container change meant starting the reverse-engineering again, and the volunteers who did it moved on before CorelDRAW did.
Two questions sort out most of what is left. Answer them in order.
Check where it came from. A designer or print shop means CorelDRAW. A Mac, CD ripper or vehicle means one of the other three in section 2.
Rename a copy to .zip. Opens as an archive means X4 or later. Refuses means older, and section 4 shows where the version sits in the bytes.
Moving artwork rather than opening it? The AI file format is the Illustrator equivalent. Encapsulated PostScript and plain PostScript are print routes, and the PDF format outlives all of them.
Sending work to a cutter or engraver? PLT plotter files and the HPGL language are what the machine reads at the far end.
Dealing with a layered design file instead? The PSD file format has the same closed-format problem on the Photoshop side.
New to all of this? What a file format is covers the ground underneath, and our file format guides list the rest.
Found something here that does not match your CorelDRAW? Send us the exact wording on screen and we will check it against the version tables.