Wow...Corel "likes" AI

[James Burke]

Hmmm....

I had a friend ask me if I could open a native .AI CS6 file in Corel X6. So...I tried it...and it works.

And it gets even better. All the formatting (art boards, etc) was identical, and the native (unformatted: no arc, wave, etc...) text was still editable in Corel.

I only used the "open" and "save as" commands...not "import" or "export".

Using Illustrator, I opened the .AI file that was edited in Corel and noticed a little bit of scrambling (text was not in same position), but the text was still editable (in .AI).

One other attempt to open a Corel-edited .AI file worked perfectly with no issues. It looks like Corel has really been doing their homework with the .AI filters.

Download the free X6 trial and try it for yourself.

JB

 

[fresh]

I just got an email with a discounted upgrade... And it now supports Open Type glyphs! No more opening up a file in AI, typing the glyphs, and exporting them to use as shapes in Corel! Yeppie!

But I haven't downloaded a trial yet. I'm afraid to mess up my print/cut settings.

 

[Bobby H]

CorelDRAW X6 does play a little better with Adobe Illustrator than it did in previous versions. But it isn't perfect. One example: gradient fills can still go wonky going from one application to another. It doesn't matter if it's Illustrator to Corel or Corel to Illustrator. Gotta check those fills when opening the file in the destination app.

One little nit I've noticed for years with Illustrator artwork brought into CorelDRAW. Very often any compound paths in Illustrator will have a glitch with anchor points once opened in Corel. At some point along the path a single anchor point in Illustrator will be turned into two nodes on top of each other once imported into Corel. It doesn't affect the appearance of the artwork. However that type of glitch makes me nervous for potential errors that can happen later in production. Like when some letters with that glitch are converted into G-Code for parts routing. The doubled nodes could affect the enter/exit points for the router bit. Worst case scenario is the routing table losing its mind over the issue and stopping a routing job in progress. And then there's the issue that I just like "clean" artwork with as few extraneous control points as possible.