Image/Asset Management Tools for CorelDRAW Users
Frequently I'm asked by CorelDRAW users if there are any image/asset management tools that work with Corel's native formats. Today I'm going to highlight two tools that might meet your needs as they both have the ability to work with CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT files.
One thing to understand before we start the discussion is about the thumbnails stored in CDR files. They are very low resolution bitmaps and there are situations where they do not match the content of the CDR file. If a file gets corrupted, the thumbnail will probably still display though the file can not be opened. The true data of the file is completely separate from the thumbnail.
The first product we'll talk about is ST Thumbnails Explorer. It does support both CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT files and will create its own thumbnails (if you have CorelDRAW installed) from the files that are higher quality than those stored in CDR files. One cool feature is that it can even create thumbnails for each page of a CDR file. It also supports Illustrator and EPS files so it can handle most of the popular vector formats quite well. For some formats, you must have the native app installed to create higher-quality thumbnails and/or a utility such as Ghostscript. You can download a trial version and then purchase if it meets your needs.
Another product worth investigating is ThumbsPlus. It uses OLE to generate thumbnails from Corel files and others. Thus you do need CorelDRAW installed to get high-quality thumbnails. It also supports a wide variety of formats. You can download a trial version and then purchase if it meets your needs.
One thing that would help us to find more solutions is if Corel would provide higher quality thumbnails inside the CDR file. This would eliminate the need for these third-party apps to generate their own thumbnails. It would also be great if Corel would work with these third-parties to help them create the necessary links to work with Corel's file formats. Given that Corel products can't read the formats of other file formats, I seriously doubt this will happen anytime soon.
If you have any other suggested tools for image and asset management for CorelDRAW users, post a comment and tell us about it. And don't forget you can always use the free ROMCat utility to search CorelDRAW clipart and user generated files by keywords.
One thing to understand before we start the discussion is about the thumbnails stored in CDR files. They are very low resolution bitmaps and there are situations where they do not match the content of the CDR file. If a file gets corrupted, the thumbnail will probably still display though the file can not be opened. The true data of the file is completely separate from the thumbnail.
The first product we'll talk about is ST Thumbnails Explorer. It does support both CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT files and will create its own thumbnails (if you have CorelDRAW installed) from the files that are higher quality than those stored in CDR files. One cool feature is that it can even create thumbnails for each page of a CDR file. It also supports Illustrator and EPS files so it can handle most of the popular vector formats quite well. For some formats, you must have the native app installed to create higher-quality thumbnails and/or a utility such as Ghostscript. You can download a trial version and then purchase if it meets your needs.
Another product worth investigating is ThumbsPlus. It uses OLE to generate thumbnails from Corel files and others. Thus you do need CorelDRAW installed to get high-quality thumbnails. It also supports a wide variety of formats. You can download a trial version and then purchase if it meets your needs.
One thing that would help us to find more solutions is if Corel would provide higher quality thumbnails inside the CDR file. This would eliminate the need for these third-party apps to generate their own thumbnails. It would also be great if Corel would work with these third-parties to help them create the necessary links to work with Corel's file formats. Given that Corel products can't read the formats of other file formats, I seriously doubt this will happen anytime soon.
If you have any other suggested tools for image and asset management for CorelDRAW users, post a comment and tell us about it. And don't forget you can always use the free ROMCat utility to search CorelDRAW clipart and user generated files by keywords.
posted by Foster D. Coburn III at
12:22 AM
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