Viewing CorelDraw v8 & 9 without CorelDraw

[JayJay]

Hi all,
I've got loads of CorelDraw v8 and v9 files to publish on the our intranet. Is anyone aware of
any general-purpose viewer that can view and print CDR v8/9 files.
Have tried QuickView Plus but this only view some of the v9 files and not all the files; especially those with high-graphics bitmaps.

Will appreciate all help.

Regards,
Jay

[JayJay]

Hi all,
I've got loads of CorelDraw v8 and v9 files to publish on the our intranet. Is anyone aware of
any general-purpose viewer that can view and print CDR v8/9 files.
Have tried QuickView Plus but this only view some of the v9 files and not all the files; especially those with high-graphics bitmaps.

Will appreciate all help.

Regards,
Jay

[Not Ziggy]

The reason Acrobat exists and has become so pervasive in the world is that most high-end programs CANNOT be viewed without the application that created them.

A short history of Acrobat:

Step 1: In the mid-80's, Adobe invented the PostScript programming language, which serves as a neutral standard by which all the myriad graphics applications can speak to all the myriad brands of laser printers and imagesetters. The PS file format was born, and was quickly cloned as PRN (Microsoft), GhostScript (Aladdin), and PCL (Hewlett-Packard). Numerous other clones now exist and are extremely dangerous in their inconsistency.

Step 2: To facilitate importing vector graphics and formatted text from one graphics application to another, Adobe adds the option of a "preview" image to PostScript files. This preview allows one application's PostScript output to be positioned on a document in another application. Since this preview is "encapsulated" in the file, the "Encapsulated PostScript" format is born. An EPS is just a PostScript print file with a preview.

Step 3: To facilitate viewing the files made by high-end graphics programs by people who don't own those applications, Adobe created the PDF format, which is just an EPS with two differences: a) unlike an EPS, it can have more than one page, and b) they can be viewed by the freely distributed "Acrobat Reader" program. A PDF is just a PostScript print file with a preview viewable with Acrobat Reader.

Finally, as you may not know, CorelDraw has come with a PDF export utility built in since version 7, if I remember correctly. It isn't quite as powerful as Distiller, the expensive PDF generator sold by Adobe, but it works alright most of the time.

[smorg]

Jay, if you don't have Paint Shop Pro in your arsenal, I would highly recommend getting a copy of the trial version to test it out. It opens CDR/CMX files (a little slower than jpg's, but still...) and will let you thumbnail/print them.

[jjkohler]

This Program may be what you are looking for. For more info check their site.

http://www.cerious.com


john