Quick links to procedures on this page:

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To start Corel DESIGNER
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To start a drawing
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To create a custom preset
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To open a drawing

Starting and opening drawings

When you start Corel DESIGNER, you can choose the workspace with which you feel the most comfortable. For example, you can choose a workspace that has the look and feel of CorelDRAW. If you are new to Corel DESIGNER, it is best to choose the default workspace, on which all procedures in the Help and user guide are based.

Corel DESIGNER 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. The templates included with the application are available under the following categories:

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ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
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Architectural
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DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung)
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Engineering
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ISO (International Organization for Standardization)

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.

Notes for starting new drawings

When starting a new drawing, Corel DESIGNER 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.

Notes for opening existing drawings

Basing a new drawing on an existing drawing lets you reuse objects and page settings. Corel DESIGNER lets you open existing drawings saved to the Corel DESIGNER (DSF or DES) format as well as drawings and projects saved to various other file formats, such as CorelDRAW (CDR), 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 Corel DESIGNER, see Supported file formats.

If the drawing you are opening is from an earlier version of Corel DESIGNER 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 8, 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 8, 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 Corel DESIGNER Back to Top
1.
 
Click Start All programs CorelDRAW Technical Suite X6 Corel DESIGNER X6.
2.
 
In the Select workspace dialog box, choose a workspace from the list box.
If you do not want the Select workspace dialog box to appear each time you start Corel DESIGNER, enable the Do not show this dialog box on startup check box.
Procedures in the Help are based on the default workspace.
To restore the Select workspace dialog box, click Tools Customization, click Workspace, and enable the Select workspace at startup check box.
To start a drawing Back to Top
1.
 
Do one of the following:
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On the Welcome screen, click Quick start New blank document.
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In the application window, click File New.
2.
 
Type a filename in the Name text box.
3.
 
From the Preset destination list box, choose an output destination for the drawing:
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Corel DESIGNER default — applies the Corel DESIGNER 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

You can also
 
Change the unit of measurement for the page
Choose a unit of measurement from the Drawing units list box.
Change the page size
Choose a page size for the drawing from the Size list box or type values in the Width and Height boxes.
Change the page orientation
Click one of the following page orientation buttons:
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Portrait
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Landscape
Set the number of pages
Type a value in the Number of pages box.
Set the default color mode for the document to RGB or CMYK
Choose a color mode from the Primary color mode list box.
Set the resolution for effects that will likely be rasterized, such as transparency, drop shadow, and bevel effects
Choose a rendering resolution from the Rendering resolution list box.
Choose the preview mode for the drawing
Choose a preview mode from the Preview mode list box.
Choose an RGB profile for the drawing
Choose a default RGB profile from the RGB profile list box.
Choose a CMYK profile for the drawing
Choose a default CMYK profile from the CMYK profile list box.
Choose a Grayscale profile for the drawing
Choose a default Grayscale profile from the Grayscale profile list box.
Choose a default method for out-of-gamut colors to be mapped into gamut
Choose an option from the Rendering intent list box.

When you choose a color mode from the Primary color mode list box, it 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.
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.
The settings that are displayed in the Color settings area of the Create a new document dialog box are based on the settings that are specified in the Default color management settings dialog box.
If you do not want to show the Create a new document dialog box and prefer to use the default settings to create new documents, enable the Do not show this dialog again check box.
You can restore the Create a new document dialog box when starting drawings by clicking Tools Options, clicking General in the Workspace list of categories, and enabling the Show new document dialog box check box.
To create a custom preset Back to Top
1.
 
In the application window, click File New.
2.
 
In the Create a new document dialog box, choose the settings that you want to save as a preset destination.
3.
 
Click the Add preset button.
4.
 
In the Add preset dialog box, type a name for the new destination preset.
You can delete a destination preset by choosing the preset name from the Preset destination list box and clicking the Remove preset button.
To open a drawing Back to Top
1.
 
Click File Open.
2.
 
Locate the folder where the drawing is stored.
3.
 
Click a filename.
4.
 
Click Open.

You can also
 
Extract an embedded International Color Consortium (ICC) profile to the color folder in which the application is installed
Enable the Extract embedded ICC profile check box.
This option is not available for all file formats.
Maintain layers and pages when you open files
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.
View thumbnail of a drawing
(Windows 7 and Windows 8) 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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Enable the Preview check box.
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Click the View menu button, and select Thumbnails.
Choose a code page
(Windows 7 and Windows 8) 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.
Search for a drawing (Windows 7 and Windows 8)
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.
Access a previous version of a file (Windows 7 and Windows 8)
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.

To open a file you have recently worked on, click File Open recent, and click the filename.
If you have multiple files open, you can navigate between them by clicking Window Document, and then clicking the name of the file that you want to display in the drawing window.
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