Importing anything from CorelDraw Graphics Suite

[apbrooks]

I have both Paint Shop Pro X3 and Corel Draw Graphics Suite X5 and am trying to figure out how to better integrate the two so that they can be used for a more dynamic working environment.

The text tool in PSP is nothing compared to CDGS, so there are many times when I would prefer to do my text creations in CDGS and then import them.
The same holds true for some of the vector based objects and creating them in CDGS. It's just easier.

The issue is that I have yet to be able to successfully import anything from CDGS into PSP. The only exceptions are:

1. as a jpg file, but then I lose all editability
2. by simply selecting the object, copying it, and pasting between the two through the clipboard.

The first is not acceptable, and the second, well that brings up another set of problems.

When copying and pasting between CDGS and PSP, even if my image sizes and screen settings are the same, the objects do not come out the same size, they paste in as a raster object and in the case of text, all editability is gone too.

I have not had any luck saving as an .ai (Adobe Illustrator) file and then opening it in PSP. PSP believes that it is going to open a file and then wants me to make some settings, but no matter which settings I've tried, the results are the same -- a blank page with no objects or layers.

Any assistance, suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Allen

[teknisyan]

Hello apbrooks,

PSP X3 support CDR or Corel Draw files, so just save your Corel Draw X5 as .CDR and you can open those file on PSP X3. Also Corel Draw X5 has its own photo editing program the Photo Paint X5, which is equally useful as the PSP X3 and it is integrated with the Corel Draw X5. The problem with the Corel Draw and PSP is that Corel Draw X5 is a vector base graphics designer software, while PSP is a raster base photo editing program.

[Ron P.]

Sorry Abiel,

I have CDGS X4, and while PSP X3 does claim to be able to open a CDR file, everyone that I've tried gives me this error:

cdr files in PSP.png (4.88 KiB) Viewed 7202 times

Unless I'm missing something here, I would say this is similar to VS accepting FLV files to edit. In the insert menu it does list FLV files as one of the file types, however reality is that it is not accepted.

Now there is one way to get the CDR image into PSP X3. You need to have your CDR open in CorelDraw, select all the layers, or group them, then select Copy to copy it to the clipboard. Now in PSPX3 go to Edit>Paste as new Image. It will not be in layers, and will be a Raster not Vector as it is in CorelDraw.

[LeviFiction]

I can only open CDR documents version 9 and lower. Well....actually version 8 froze on me when trying to open it. But for me versions 7 and 9 file formats for CDR worked well.

Only one problem, the text is converted to individual paths. So text remains uneditable but so long as you only require editing text in CorelDraw you should be fine. Move everything else over Paint Shop Pro. I obviously haven't tested which elements of 7 and 9 are available but I also don't use CorelDraw. I downloaded it just to test this out.

[Ron P.]

Thanks Levi, I went back and saved the CDR file as version 9 and was able to open them in PSP. Must be something very different with how PSP is seeing the CDR versions.

[LeviFiction]

It just means that Corel has not made importers for its other CDR versions. And, for whatever reason, doesn't recognize a text object like CorelDraw does, which while not big is my biggest concern. You would think it would be possible to make the conversion for it if you know the format. But I don't know how it saves such things, so I guess not.

I don't expect direct conversion or anything but I would expect them to be able to do that. But apparently even its SVG importer isn't all that good either. Makes me wonder if some of these vector formats don't have importer plugins available for them that would work in Paint Shop Pro. But I doubt it.

[wds937]

Perhaps you could try saving as a Windows Metafile (.WMF). While this was by no means a thorough test, I created a simple drawing in CorelDraw consisting of two vector shapes and a text object. I saved the drawing as a .WMF, which I opened in PSP. The document opened in PSP as a single vector layer with all three objects. The text was editable.

I used CorelDraw 9 and PSP X3 Ultimate for the test. I also tried a few other file formats that both applications (at least somewhat) support, but the results were less good if they worked at all.

[LeviFiction]

Good catch. I just found that the EMF (Extended Metafile) was also good for importing text from. But the objects were slightly offset in the wrong place. The WMF definately worked better. Though they both did well.

[Simone Corel UK]

The CDR import filter was indeed not continued since version Draw 10 (I believe so) or 9 as LeviFiction wrote.

[apbrooks]

Thank you all for your replies. Here's what I have tried and what my ultimate goal is for these two packages:

To start, I completely understand the differences between these products and I have a professional level of knowledge about working with both Raster and Vector based objects and programs. That having been said (written), I'll continue.

I realize that bringing something from CDGS into PSP will have certain limitations, but I never imagined that the workflow between them would be so cumbersome and limiting.

Take a simple example. I'd like to use CDGS to create a beautiful heart shaped object, nice thick lines with a subtle gradient fill and then flow text inside of this graphic because CDGS does this really well and PSP cannot do this at all. So, the image is simple, the text is nothing special (name your own font) and then I wish to bring this into PSP in high-resolution so that I can continue to work this into some project.

I realize that the text will no longer be editable and that in fact the heart will now be a rasterized object too. I can live with this. One of my issues is that no matter how high I set my screen/print resolution to be (300 to 600dpi), when I then save the object, and with luck then import it into PSP, the resolution is horrible.

I set the two files to have similar settings, such as 8" x 10", 300dpi, same depth, etc. When I see the text on the screen in CDGS it's beautiful (sure it's vector) but one would think that if it came over at that resolution, it would look great, but that's not the case. In fact, I have better luck opening my screen, zooming in on CDGS and then grabbing it with SnagIt or another screen capture product. That resolution looks better!

I love Corel products, don't misunderstand. I realize that I will not necessarily have the same dynamic workflow that I might have with some "other" product suite, but it gets frustrating.

Thoughts?

Thank you,

Allen