Files carrying a .cdr suffix usually are what they say they are, but the suffix is not proof. Save-as to an older CorelDRAW version is available in File > Save As and is the fix for ‘file created in a newer version’.
| Full name | CorelDRAW Drawing |
| Extension | .cdr |
| Written by | Corel Corporation |
| Usual MIME type | application/coreldraw |
How the file is laid out
CorelDRAW keeps every object with its own fill, outline and transform records, plus a preview bitmap so the file can be listed without opening it.
CorelDRAW writes a version marker into its header block, so a file saved by a newer release cannot be opened by an older one, and the extension alone identifies nothing.
How we identify it
There is no fixed signature at the head of this one, so identification means reading the structure instead: No fixed magic number; CorelDRAW writes a version marker in the file header block that the application reads before the drawing objects.
Programs that open it
Installed options: CorelDRAW (2019-2024), CorelDRAW Graphics Suite (older versions cannot open newer files), Xara (import), Inkscape (import, limited). None of them have to be the program that made the file: Universal Viewer reads it and writes nothing back.
Exporting to other formats
The targets people actually ask for are .eps, .pdf, .svg, .png, .ai. Each one has its own page with the settings that matter: cdr → eps, cdr → pdf, cdr → svg, cdr → png, cdr → ai
Last looked over 2026-10-05 by M. Halvorsen.
Notes from the file library
Files of this kind are catalogued with the family named in the table above. The family groups them by what a file carries, not by the application that wrote it, which is why two extensions from the same application can sit in different families.
Two things decide whether a file can be opened on a machine that never had the application that made it: the header, which says what the container is, and the structure behind it, which says whether the contents can be read at all. The conversion guides listed on the page cover the targets that come up most often.
Format pages are rebuilt with each release of the toolset, and the review line at the bottom of the page is when an editor last checked the entry against a file. If a page disagrees with a file you have, send the first sixteen bytes and the build number to the support address and the entry is corrected in the next build.