Quick links to procedures on this page:
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CorelDRAW lets you start a new drawing from a blank page, a template, or an existing drawing. A blank page gives you the freedom to specify every aspect of a drawing. A template provides you with a starting point and leaves the amount of customization up to you.
For information about starting a drawing from a template, see To start a document from a template. For more information about creating and using templates, see Working with templates.
When starting a new drawing, CorelDRAW lets you specify page, document, and color management settings. You can choose from a list of preset settings, which are based on how you intend to use the drawing. For example, you can choose the Web option if you are creating a drawing for the Internet, or the Default CMYK option if you are creating a document destined for commercial printing. However, if the preset settings are not suitable for the drawing that you want to create, you can also customize the settings and save them for future use.
Basing a new drawing on an existing drawing lets you reuse objects and page settings. CorelDRAW lets you open existing drawings saved to the CorelDRAW (CDR) format as well as drawings and projects saved to various file formats such as Corel DESIGNER (DSF or DES), Adobe Illustrator (AI), Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), and Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM). However, you may not be able to open certain files, depending on their file type and contents. In such cases, you can try importing the files as objects in an open drawing. For information about the file formats that you can import into CorelDRAW, see Supported file formats.
If the drawing you are opening is from an earlier version of CorelDRAW and contains text in a language different from the language of your operating system, you can choose code page settings to ensure that text is properly converted according to the Unicode Standard. Code page settings help you correctly display text such as keywords, file names, and text entries outside the drawing window — for example, in the Object manager and Object data manager dockers. To display text correctly in the drawing window, you must use encoding settings. For more information, see Displaying text correctly in any language.
If the drawing you are opening contains an embedded International Color Consortium (ICC) profile, the embedded color profile remains the document’s color profile. For more information, see Understanding color management.
If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can search for drawings by different criteria, such as filename, title, subject, author, keyword, comment, text within the file, and other properties attached to the file. For more information about searching for files with Windows 7 or Windows Vista, see the Windows Help. If your operating system is Windows XP, you can use Windows Desktop Search to find files. For more information about browsing and searching for content, see Browsing and searching for content.
You can also display previous versions of a drawing.
To start CorelDRAW | ![]() |
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Click Start ![]() ![]() ![]() |
To start a drawing | ![]() |
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Do one of the following:
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On the Welcome screen, click Quick start ![]() |
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In the application window, click File ![]() |
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Type a filename in the Name text box.
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From the Preset destination list box, choose an output destination for the
drawing:
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CorelDRAW Default — applies the CorelDRAW default settings for creating
graphics that are destined for printing
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Default CMYK — applies settings for creating graphics that are destined for
commercial printing
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Default RGB — applies settings for creating graphics that are destined for
printing to a high-fidelity printer
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Web — applies settings for creating graphics that are destined for the Internet
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Custom — lets you customize destination settings for a document
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When you choose a color mode from the Primary color mode list box, the
color mode that you choose becomes the default color mode for the document.
The default color mode affects how colors work together in effects such as
blends and transparencies. It does not restrict the type of colors that you can
apply to a drawing. For example, if you set the color mode to RGB, you can
still apply colors from a CMYK color palette to the document.
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The primary color mode also specifies the default color mode for exporting
documents. For example, if you choose the RGB color mode and export a
document as a JPEG, the color mode is automatically set to RGB.
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The selections that display in the Color settings area of the Create a new
document dialog box are based on the selections that are specified in the
Default color management settings dialog box.
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If you do not want to show the Create a new drawing dialog box and prefer
to use the default settings to create new documents, enable the Do not show
this dialog again check box.
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You can restore the Create a new drawing dialog box when starting drawings
by clicking Tools ![]() |
To create a custom preset | ![]() |
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In the application window, click File ![]() |
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In the Create a new drawing dialog box, choose the settings that you want to save
as a preset destination.
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Click the Add preset button.
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In the Add preset dialog box, type a name for the new destination preset in the
text box.
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You can delete a destination preset by choosing the preset name from the
Preset destination list box, and clicking the Remove preset button.
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To open a drawing | ![]() |
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Click File ![]() |
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Locate the folder where the drawing is stored.
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Click a filename.
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Click Open.
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You can also
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Enable the Extract embedded ICC profile check box.
This option is not available for all file formats.
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Maintain layers and pages when you open files
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Enable the Maintain layers and pages check box.
If you disable the check box, all layers are combined in a single layer.
This option is not available for all file formats.
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View thumbnail of a drawing
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(Windows 7 and Windows Vista) Click the arrow button next to the Views button, and click Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, or Small icons.
(Windows XP) Do one of the following:
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Choose a code page
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(Windows 7 and Windows Vista) Choose a code page from the Select code page list box. This option is not available for all file formats.
(Windows XP) Choose a code page from the Code page list box.
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Search for a drawing (Windows 7 and Windows Vista)
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Type a word or phrase in the search box.
The search box looks for files only in the current folder and subfolders. To search for a drawing in another location, you must first navigate to the folder where the drawing is stored.
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Access a previous version of a file (Windows 7 and Windows Vista)
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Right-click a file, and click Restore previous versions.
You can access a previous version of a file only if System Protection is turned on.
For detailed information about accessing previous versions of files, see the Windows Help.
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You can view file information, such as version number and compression ratio.
For example, a compression ratio of 80 percent means that the file size was
reduced by 80 percent after the file was saved. You can also see in what
application and language the drawing was last saved, and you can view
keywords and notes associated with a drawing.
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To open a file you have recently worked on, click File ![]() |
If you have multiple files open, you can navigate between them by clicking
Window and then clicking the name of the file that you want to display in the
drawing window.
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