Convert PDF to CDR

A PDF document can be converted directly to a CorelDRAW (.cdr) file using only CorelDRAW software. It will depend on the complexity and content of the PDF as to whether or not it will be successful.

The following steps will guide you through the PDF to CDR conversion process.

Convert PDF to CDR in CorelDraw

1. If you don't have CorelDRAW, you must download it from CorelDraw's official website, try the trial version, or purchase a subscription.

2. After opening CorelDraw, click on the main menu File -> Import. Click the Import button after finding your PDF file and selecting it.

3. The cursor will change to display the first page of the PDF document. Click on your workspace to position it and paste the PDF content. You'll get a dialog asking you to select the pages you want to import if your PDF has multiple pages.

4. After importing the PDF, you may need to ungroup objects if they appear grouped. Right-click on the imported PDF content and select the Ungroup command if available.

5. If the import was successful and you've made any required adjustments, navigate to File, then choose Save As. Select the .cdr format and save.

Potential issues:

The results may differ when you open a PDF that uses fonts not installed on your computer. Install the original fonts or convert text into curves/paths in the PDF before importing.

There are some advanced elements in PDFs that might not import correctly, and you'll have to manually adjust or recreate them in CorelDRAW.

It is known that CorelDraw's graphics editor has some problems when importing PDF files that have not been exported from CorelDraw previously. There can be slight anomalies in a .pdf file that will result in CorelDraw being unable to recognize any data. Typically, this is the case when importing older PDF documents that display an error message stating, "File is corrupted".

The workaround for successful imports to CorelDraw is to re-save your .pdf document again (PDF/A or PDF/X) using the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader. You may obtain better results by exporting to Postscript, but in any case you will need CorelDraw, since it is virtually impossible to reproduce a CDR file from a PDF file without it.

Since the CDR format is proprietary and most programs / online converters deal with an older variant of the format, finding a reliable PDF to CDR converter online is unlikely, or it is a scam. The best way is to use CorelDraw application, PDF and CDR are two completely different file formats, and newer versions of CorelDraw graphics suite have better support for importing PDF documents.

Make sure you always use caution when uploading your files to web-based converters, as you never know where they may end up.