CDR File Extension

What is CDR file?

CDR file is drawing or vector image created with CorelDraw, a vector graphic editor by Corel Corporation.

In first versions of CorelDraw, CDR file format was completely proprietary file format used for vector graphic drawings and was recognized by “WL” – first two bytes in the file. As CorelDraw developed over the years, in CorelDraw version 3, CDR format changed to Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) envelope, recognized by first four bytes in the file - “RIFF”. From version X4 (14), CDR file is zip compressed directory containing several files, including XML files and RIFF-structured file. Other CorelDraw formats are CDX – CorelDraw Compressed, CDR – CorelDraw Template and CMX – CorelDraw Exchange. Current version of CorelDraw is marketed as CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2018 (equivalent to version 20) released on 10 April 2018.

CDR file contains a document that can contains text, shapes, images, lines or effects and are usually used to create documents such as letters, envelopes, postcards, brochures and other types of documents. CDR file also can be saved as template to reuse document layout again.

How to open CDR files?

Since vector graphics files in CDR format are not recognized by many applications, Corel Draw supports exporting CDR files to other more popular image formats such as JPG, BMP, PNG and other.

Programs that supports .cdr files: