What is a CDR file?

A CDR file (.cdr) is a drawing saved by CorelDRAW, the vector graphics suite used by print shops, sign makers, screen printers and embroidery studios around the world. It holds vector objects (curves, shapes, text), page layout, colors and styles, plus any bitmaps placed in the drawing. It is a proprietary format owned by Corel, and every yearly CorelDRAW release changes it a little.

What is inside a .cdr

Since CorelDRAW X4 (2008) a .cdr is a ZIP package. Rename a copy to .zip and you can look inside:

mimetype                      application/x-vnd.corel.zcf.draw.document+zip
content/root.dat              the drawing itself, in RIFF format
content/data/                 embedded bitmaps and fills
metadata/thumbnail.png        the preview Windows Explorer shows
META-INF/metadata.xml         author, dates, application version
styles/document.cdss          document styles (JSON)

The drawing in content/root.dat is a RIFF stream, the same container used by WAV and AVI files: a four-letter code identifying the block, its size, and its contents. The very first code after RIFF is the form, which changes with every version: CDRR for CorelDRAW 2023, CDRT for 2024, CDRU for 2025. A few bytes later the vrsn chunk repeats the version as a number: 2500, 2600, 2700.

Files from CorelDRAW X3 and earlier are not zipped. They are a bare RIFF stream and their form is CDR plus a version letter: CDR9 for version 9, CDRC for X2, CDRD for X3.

Why CorelDRAW refuses to open a file

CorelDRAW opens any file saved by an older version of itself. It never opens a file saved by a newer one. Before drawing anything it reads the version number inside the file; if that number is higher than its own, it stops with a message such as “This file was created in a newer version of CorelDRAW” or “file format not supported”.

This is the single most common problem with CDR files, and it is not the file’s fault. A designer upgrades to CorelDRAW 2025, sends a file to a print shop still running 2020, and the shop cannot open it. The fix is to save the file for the older version: either in the newer CorelDRAW (File > Save As, choose the version) or with a tool such as CDRfix’s version converter.

How to open a CDR file without CorelDRAW

• Online viewer. Drop the file on CDRfix’s CDR viewer: you see the pages, zoom into the vectors, list the fonts and export to PDF, SVG or PNG. Nothing to install.
• Inkscape (free, Windows/Mac/Linux) imports CDR through the open-source libcdr library. Good for editing; some recent effects are simplified.
• LibreOffice Draw (free) also opens CDR files via libcdr and can export to PDF.
• Convert it. If you only need to print, share or embed the artwork, convert the file to PDF, SVG, PNG or AI.
• Windows Explorer shows the embedded thumbnail if a CorelDRAW shell extension is installed, but cannot open the file.

How to convert a CDR file

The right target format depends on what happens next:

The reverse also works: SVG, PDF, AI, EPS and DXF files can be converted to CDR so they open as native CorelDRAW documents.

CDR, CDT, CMX and CDRX

• CDT is a CorelDRAW template: the same package as a CDR with a template header (CDT forms).
• CMX (Corel Presentation Exchange) is Corel’s exchange format: a flattened drawing that older Corel apps, clip-art libraries and many RIPs read.
• CDRX is the ZIP-compressed variant of old RIFF files; modern CDR files are already compressed.
• CDRT was a template format in older releases.

CDRfix reads all of them.

Version history at a glance

The full table, with the RIFF codes, is on the CorelDRAW versions page. To find out which version saved a specific file, drop it there: the answer is read in your browser, without uploading.