Flaws with RAW Files

If you've been reading our CorelDRAW Unleashed magazine over the past few issues, you've seen that we've had a running series discussing the usage of RAW files from your digital camera. There is no doubt that they give you the highest quality images.

The downside is that the camera makers have created so many different flavors of RAW that it can be difficult to have a single piece of software that can work with all flavors of RAW. Recently there was a post in the coreldraw.com discussion forums complaining that Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 didn't support the RAW from a fairly new digital SLR model. The poster was correct, it was not supported. Given that it was a popular model, there is no doubt Corel will add support with the first service pack for CorelDRAW X4.

You might think that Corel just isn't keeping up with RAW. So what if a company with what seems to be an unlimited supply of money didn't support current RAW formats? That's exactly the case with Google's Picasa software as Stephen Shankland recently described in his blog.

The real problem is that camera manufacturers need to standardize on a RAW format. Even if each manufacturer would agree to a single format that worked on all of their models, the processing of the files would be much simpler. But when every new camera, and even every new firmware version, brings a new format; it is just impossible for software developers to keep up.

Adobe tried to propose a standard with its Digital Negative (DNR) format, but it has not gained any steam at all. We can only hope that some sanity appears soon and somehow the camera manufacturers simplify things.

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PDF is Now an ISO Standard

At this point almost every computer user on the planet knows about the PDF (Portable Document Format) file format. It was created and maintained by Adobe until this point. For CorelDRAW users, this has created some frustration as the file format would get updated and we would have to wait for new import/export filters to support the latest format.

Things are changing and this could help keep all software current with the latest format. The ISO (International Organization for Standardisation) has approved the PDF file format as an international document format standard. This means that Adobe no longer has complete control over the format. Instead there will be a ISO committee that determines any changes. Of course, Adobe will participate in the committee and we can only hope other software companies are also represented on that same committee.

Only time will tell, but I think this is a very good thing.

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Office 2003 vs CorelDRAW -- Users Lose

When Office 2003 SP3 was released, it blocked some file formats because they were deemed insecure. This included CorelDRAW CDR files. I find it funny that Microsoft calls the file formats of others insecure when Office files are some of the least secure file formats out there.

Corel is obviously not very happy with this. Gerard Metrallier, Director of Product Management, Graphics at Corel had the following to say.

"Microsoft recently announced that with the release of Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, installing this program will block certain files formats. According to a Microsoft knowledge base article on the subject, these file formats include CorelDRAW .CDR files because they are deemed less secure. Since this has posted, Corel has unsuccessfully tried to figure out the basis for categorizing .CDR files as 'less secure' and sites such as FrSIRT or US-CERT don't have any information about CorelDRAW.”

"CorelDRAW users can rest assured that they can still use CorelDRAW Graphics Suite normally on a system where Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 has been installed. This update from Microsoft does not impact CorelDRAW at all or the capability of opening .CDR files from within CorelDRAW or from Windows Explorer. We are currently working with Microsoft to get more details about this issue, as we want to make 100 percent certain our file formats pose no security concern for any of our users. Corel is not aware of any security issue related to the CorelDRAW .CDR file format. If there is a known problem that had security implications, we will get this resolved as quickly as possible.”

Obviously Corel isn't very happy that their formats are called insecure. I don't blame them. While there may be a possibility of insecurity, they are not used by a high enough percentage of users to be a format that hackers would likely target. I'm guessing the possibility exists because CorelDRAW files can contain VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macros. Hmm, VBA is licensed from Microsoft.

There is a way to unblock the files. Microsoft has posted a knowledge base article about the blocking and how to edit the registry to unblock certain formats. I think it was Outlook 2000 that added blocking of certain attachment types, like EXE files, in a service pack. This also required a registry hack to bring them back. It shouldn't require a risky registry hack, there should be a dialog box in the program for users to select which formats to block.

Now as I understand this, it only affects files you wish to import into Office 2003 applications. Given that Microsoft had to reverse engineer the CDR format to import the files, it isn't a good idea to directly import a CDR file into Office. This also means the import filter doesn't support newer versions of CorelDRAW. Basically, it is much ado about nothing in my mind. Of course Microsoft suggest the problem can be solved by upgrading to Office 2007. While I enjoy Office 2007, I don't think this is a good ways to convince users to upgrade.

My suggestion, export your files from CorelDRAW to WMF, EMF or PNG (depending on how the file will be used) and import those files into CorelDRAW and this blocking won't affect you at all.

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New Artwork for Wide Format Graphics Creators

The folks at Digital Art Solutions have released a new collection of artwork templates geared toward users creating wide format graphics. The Wide Format Graphics Volume 1 collection provides all artwork as vector objects that can easily scale to any size of output needed by users. In total there are 360 templates, 210 vector backgrounds and 200 included fonts. Put that together with a full-color sales portfolio and you have a very powerful collection.

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