Affinity Designer files exported will not open in Corel.

[Destrianlives]

Am I the only one here... nothing I export from Affinity Designer will open up inside Corel Draw or Corel Photopaint... even if I export it as a .psd, pdf, .eps file etc... Is this  just me?

[gabriel_komorov]

Corel is very picky when comes to opening such files, it's not only you

[Callum]

Hi Destrianlives,

I have just tried this with an EPS made in Designer and it worked fine. If possible could you provide one of the problem files?

Thanks

Callum

[Carol-Clickmode]

I am experiencing the same problem. I design in Affinity and then when I send the artwork to the printers in pdf format, they let me know they cannot open the pdf in Corel Draw. It gives an error: file corrupted. A pdf should be a pdf... very strange.

[Proline]

Hi Carol,

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who experience this problem.
Currently I'm using the AD and AP both 1.8 version. If you need to export it into pdf format and import it later in corel, I suggest choose the compatibility on export option as PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5). It does the job for me on Corel 2019.
Eventhough you will loss some features and effects such as shadow etc. For current solution, I usually rasterize those layer in effect before export it though.

[Ulysses]

On 12/11/2020 at 3:17 AM, Carol-Clickmode said:

A pdf should be a pdf... very strange.

It's easy to see why you might think so. However, there are several distinct "flavors" of PDF, each with their own specifications. Possibly you simply need to configure your PDF export settings—including those found under the "More" button in the Export dialog—to match the needs of your printer.

[Jowday]

On 6/20/2019 at 12:22 PM, Destrianlives said:

Am I the only one here... nothing I export from Affinity Designer will open up inside Corel Draw or Corel Photopaint... even if I export it as a .psd, pdf, .eps file etc... Is this  just me?

I experienced this as well.

A quick test exporting a simple shape with a linear gradient to PDF using these profiles:

• Press (No, "file is corrupted")
• Print (No, "file is corrupted")
• Digital small or big size (OK)
• Export (OK)
• Flatten (OK)
• PDF X-1a, X-3 (OK)
• PDF X-4 (No, "file is corrupted")

Edit: It is the "Allow advanced features" found under MORE in the export dialog (PDF) that triggers the Corel error.

I don't know if it will cause problems, though, to disable it.

@Callum FYI

[Jowday]

Quote

Note this may cause issues when trying to open the resulting PDF file on third party apps. Please check the help file for details.

It is a hidden dangerous setting - some warning would be appropriate.

[lacerto]

(...)

[Jowday]

1 hour ago, Lagarto said:

That kind of setting should not exist: as far as I know its functionality is not described anywhere, and who knows what kind of experimental features are pile under the option along the time. And at least it should not be ticked by default. It is somehow related to using masks in the PDF, which CorelDRAW does not like: there are multiple posts reporting this.

@MEB 's exact words:

Quote

Regarding Allow advanced features, Affinity will try to output all elements supported by the PDF format/spec as vectors like text with strokes applied, linear and radial gradients etc.

The help file:

• Allow advanced features—when selected, all design features supported by the PDF file format are exported as vectors. If this option is off, depending on the nature of these features, they are rasterized or converted to curves on export. These features include:
  • Artistic text which has been horizontally or vertically stretched.
  • Text which has an applied stroke.
  • Linear and radial gradients.
  • Non-solid transparencies.

  If the Allow advanced features option is selected on export, the resulting PDF, when imported into other applications, may cause the above advanced features to be rasterised or rendered incorrectly.

  The third party's app may also display an error message on PDF import.

[lacerto]

(...)

[nitro912gr]

Thanks everyone for the input on this. I have my print guy coming back to me all the time for the PDFs that doesn't open and I had no clue on why this is happening. I had to open the PDF in illustrator and save again through it to have them working on his Corel Draw.

I will keep in mind now not to have this advanced option enabled. After all I have my files foolproffed with curves and expanded outlines and all, before sent them for print.