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CorelDRAW to PDF converter

CDR → PDF lets a printer, client or colleague see a CorelDRAW design without owning CorelDRAW, as long as the file is not from one of the newest releases.

  • Converted with Office engine · input deleted within 24 h
  • Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
  • Higher limits →

From real runs

What you get — and what changes

  • Vector artwork Kept

    A national flag with a detailed coat of arms (crown, eagle, shields) rendered as clean vector paths on a 1276 × 850 pt page, matching the CorelDRAW screenshot.

  • Pages Kept

    A two-page song sheet from CorelDRAW 12 came out as two A4 pages, with the page frame and illustration in place.

  • Fonts and symbols Changed

    Typefaces that are not installed are swapped for Liberation or Noto, and symbol fonts can fail outright: the music notes on the song sheet became rows of empty boxes.

  • Rotated and vertical text Changed

    On a shipping label the upside-down second copy printed the right way up, and a CorelDRAW X7 catalogue page turned its vertical side text into a column of single letters.

  • Curves in charts and effects Lost

    On a CorelDRAW 12 engineering sheet the sine and cosine curves inside the graph grids were missing, while the grids and labels stayed.

  • Bitmaps inside the design Changed

    A CorelDRAW 8 poster kept its sun rays and silhouette, but parts of the red cloud bitmap along the top turned into white blocks.

  • Old and new versions Lost

    CorelDRAW 5 files lost text and arrowheads and recent CorelDRAW files kept only an embedded bitmap, so both are refused before conversion; one X4 file could not be opened at all.

Sample conversions

Flag artwork, CorelDRAW X3

Input
201,580-byte .cdr: horizontal bands with a detailed coat of arms.
Output
54,104-byte PDF, 1 page of 1276 × 850 pt, in 2.1 s; colours and shapes match the screenshot of the original.

Two-page song sheet, CorelDRAW 12

Input
170,156-byte .cdr: lyrics with chord symbols over staves, a line drawing of David and Goliath, Turkish text.
Output
66,091-byte PDF, 2 A4 pages, in 2.6 s. Lyrics are selectable; every note head is an empty box because the music font is missing.

Shipping labels, CorelDRAW 12

Input
510,074-byte .cdr with four label copies, two of them rotated 180°.
Output
1,444,322-byte PDF in 28.9 s, the slowest file in the test; all four labels printed upright.

A real CorelDRAW → PDF run

We converted our CorelDRAW sample (11 KB) with Office engine on 2026-10-20. It took 1.5 s and produced a 1 KB PDF file, 87% smaller than the input. The engine raised 1 warning, listed below.

Input · sample.cdr · 11 KB

ZIP with 8 parts

Archive parts
8
first
content/riffData.cdr

Output · sample.pdf · 1 KB

PDF 1.6, 1 page, selectable text, 0 image objects

Version
1.6
Pages
1
Images
0
Text layer
yes
  • Fonts that are not installed on our servers are replaced, and some CorelDRAW effects (lenses, contours, transparency) are simplified; check the result against the original.

Options and when to change them

filter
Leave it unset; the drawing PDF export is picked automatically.

Do it yourself

LibreOffice

bash
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir out artwork.cdr

Reads CorelDRAW through the same open-source import we describe here; recent files load with shapes missing, without an error.

CorelDRAW

bash
File → Publish to PDF (or File → Save As → choose version X7 for others to open)

Publish to PDF is exact and embeds the fonts; it is what print shops ask for.

CorelDRAW to PDF by API or MCP

The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Office engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=cdr&to=pdf.

curl
curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.cdr" -F "from=cdr" -F "to=pdf" \
  --output output.pdf
API reference

When this is the wrong conversion

  • If a print shop needs the file, ask the designer for a Publish to PDF export; fonts and effects then match exactly.
  • If you want to keep editing the vectors in another program, CDR → SVG opens in Inkscape or Illustrator.
  • If the file came from one of the newest CorelDRAW releases, re-save it as X7 or older in CorelDRAW; we refuse those files rather than hand back a page with the artwork missing.

CorelDRAW to PDF questions

How do I open a CDR file without CorelDRAW?

Convert it to PDF here and open it in any PDF reader. Inkscape can also import many .cdr files using the same open-source reader, so it shows the same gaps.

Which CorelDRAW versions work?

We tested files from CorelDRAW 7 through X7. CorelDRAW 5 and older, and files saved by the most recent releases, are refused with a message; the version is read from the file before anything is converted.

Why are some characters empty boxes?

The design uses a font we do not have, usually a symbol, music or dingbat face, and the substitute has no matching shapes. Converting text to curves in CorelDRAW before sharing avoids it.

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