Start and open drawings

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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 Create a New Document dialog box (File New or File New from Template) provides a central location for starting new drawings. On the Document Settings tab, you can start a blank drawing by specifying document settings or choosing a preset. On the Templates tab, you can start a drawing from a template. The templates included with the application are available under the following categories:

For information about starting a drawing from a template, see To start a document from a template.

Notes for starting new drawings

When starting a new drawing from a blank page, Corel DESIGNER lets you specify page, document, and color management settings or choose a preset. Presets include predefined settings for page size and orientation, primary color mode, units of measurement, and resolution. For example, the LinkedIn Cover preset from the Social category uses pixels instead of inches, landscape orientation, RGB color and has the dimensions required for a LinkedIn cover image. Corel DESIGNER offers a wide selection of print, web, device-specific, and social media presets. You can browse and search presets. To find presets more easily, you can filter them by category and page type and sort them by name, date, and page size. If none of the presets are suitable for the drawing that you want to create, you can 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 Objects and Object Data dockers. To display text correctly in the drawing window, you must use encoding settings. For more information, see Display 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 About color management.

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, see the Windows Help.

You can also display previous versions of a drawing.

To start a drawing

 

To	Do the following
Set the number of pages	Type a value in the Number of pages box.
Set the default color mode for the document	In the Primary color mode area, enable one of the following options: • CMYK • RGB
Set the unit of measurement for the page	Choose a unit of measurement from the Drawing units list box.
Set the page size	Choose a page size for the drawing from the Size list box or type values in the Width and Height boxes.
Set the page orientation	Click one of the following page orientation buttons: • Portrait • Landscape
Set the resolution for effects that will likely be rasterized, such as transparency, drop shadow, and bevel effects	Choose a rendering resolution from the Resolution list box.
Choose a preset page size	In the Layout area, choose a page size from the Paper Type list box.

 

You can also
Choose a page viewing mode for the drawing	Click one of the following buttons: • Single Page View — to view one page at a time • Multipage View — to view all pages Tip: • To set the default page viewing mode for new drawings, click Tools Options Corel DESIGNER Document, click the Page View mode you want, click Save as Default, and click OK.
Set a bleed limit	In the Layout area, enable the Bleed check box, and type a value in the Bleed limit box.
Choose an RGB profile for the drawing	In the Colors area, 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 Colors 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 last used 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 Corel DESIGNER, clicking General, and enabling the Show New Document dialog box check box.

To find, filter, and sort presets

 

To	Do the following
Find presets	Type a word in the Search box, and press Enter. Tip: To clear the search, delete the search term. Optionally, press Enter to see the default list of presets.
Filter presets	Choose one of the following options from the Filter document presets based on page type list box: • All page sizes — shows all presets • Custom — shows the custom presets that you have created • Print — shows presets for graphics that are destined for commercial printing • Web — shows presets for graphics that are destined for the Internet • Devices — shows device-specific presets • Social — shows social media presets
Sort presets	Choose one of the following options from the Sort document presets by page type, name, date, or size list box. • Page type — lists all default presets and presets based on page size in the following fixed order: print, web, device-specific, and social media presets • Name — sorts presets by file name, in alphanumeric order • Most recently used — sort presets by the date you used them, starting with the last used preset • Largest page size — sort presets by page size, starting with the one with the largest page size • Smallest page size — sort presets by page size, starting with the one with the smallest page size Note: The Custom presets are always listed as the first item by design.

To create a custom preset

You can delete a preset by choosing the preset name from the Preset list box, and clicking the Delete Preset button .

To open a drawing

 

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	Click the arrow button next to the Views button, and click Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, or Small icons.
Choose a code page	Choose a code page from the Select code page list box. This option is not available for all file formats.
Search for a drawing	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	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. To clear the list of recently opened files, click File Open Recent Clear Menu.

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.