CorelDRAW
CorelDRAW can merge a spreadsheet into a template and print hundreds of pieces from it. The trouble starts when production does not want print, it wants separate print-ready PDFs named from the data. In garment decoration that is the normal case: if you do names and numbers, you need one file per player, and the name has to be in the file name. I went through it step by step and this is where that road ends.
Straight up: I had never used Print Merge myself. I wrote the CorelDRAW version of exportPDF at a customer's request and it solved different problems. So before writing about the feature I worked through it step by step in CorelDRAW 2025 on a spreadsheet with eight rows, rather than repeat things I had only heard. This is what I saw on screen.
More than it usually gets credit for, and it is fair to say so first. As a data source it takes CSV, TXT, RTF, XLSX and ODBC. Merge fields are not limited to text - the selector offers Text, Image and QR code, so images and QR codes from the sheet work natively. Records can be edited by hand in the Configure Data Source dialog, columns added, records browsed.
For name badges, certificates or labels that go straight to the printer this is a complete tool and you need nothing else.
Create Merged Document followed by printing ends in a single file. In my test, eight rows produced one Print merge1.pdf of 3.4 MB. When production is waiting for two hundred separate PDFs, that does not help.
This is the interesting part, because the option does exist - you just do not reach it the way you would expect. In the print dialog there is a drop-down next to Print to file. With the Corel PDF printer driver it is greyed out: the driver forces print-to-file and locks the list. Switch to the Adobe PDF driver and it unlocks, offering Single file, Pages to separate files and Plates to separate files.
But print-to-file bypasses the PDF driver. The Save As dialog then offers only Print file (*.prn) and PostScript file (*.ps). No PDF. To turn those into print-ready PDFs they have to go through Distiller.
And this is where the road ends for us. PostScript does not support transparency, so Distiller does not offer PDF/X-4 conversion at all - only PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3. Those standards contain no transparency, so transparent areas are rasterized during conversion. Our production runs on PDF/X-4 because we need transparency preserved. The PostScript route is therefore not merely slow, it is unusable for us. If X-1a is fine for you the picture is different - but it is worth knowing up front rather than after the first proof.
Even when the split works, this is what you get. The document was called Center circle 2026 and there were eight rows:
Center circle 2026.ps Center circle 2026-1.ps Center circle 2026-2.ps Center circle 2026-3.ps Center circle 2026-4.ps Center circle 2026-5.ps Center circle 2026-6.ps Center circle 2026-7.ps
No names, no squad numbers, just an index. Distiller keeps the file name, so after conversion you still have -1.pdf through -7.pdf. On a fifty-piece order that means matching fifty files to players by hand, which is exactly what you reached for automation to avoid.
This is not a fault, just the boundary of what the feature was designed for. Text, image and QR code are placed reliably. It will not build a number out of graphic symbols, fit a sponsor logo inside a digit and scale it, add a caron to a font that has none, or duplicate groups on a sheet according to quantities from the spreadsheet.
CorelDRAW has VBA built in, so everything above can be worked around with your own macro. exportPDF is exactly that - a macro for CorelDRAW, nothing more. The question is not whether it is possible, but how much work it takes and whether you want to do it yourself.
Looping through spreadsheet rows and calling a PDF export for each is a few dozen lines and within reach of anyone who has opened VBA. The rest is less straightforward: sizing a logo against the height of a digit, assembling a number from individual graphic symbols, detecting that a font has no glyph for the Nordic Å and drawing it as geometry, or duplicating named groups on a sheet by quantity. That is months of tuning on real orders, not an afternoon with a recorded macro.
Print Merge and a custom macro are both real routes. Each one stops in a different place and this table shows where.
| Print Merge | Custom VBA macro | exportPDF | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSV, TXT, RTF input | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| XLSX input | ✓ | you write it | ✗ |
| QR codes and images from data | ✓ | you write it | ✗ |
| One PDF per row | only via .ps | you write it | ✓ |
| Direct PDF export, no PostScript | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| File and folder names from data | sequential numbers | you write it | ✓ |
| Numbers from graphic symbols | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Logo inside the digit | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Diacritics for fonts without them | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ 10 languages |
| Sheet mode (pieces per sheet) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Laser cut contours | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Duplicate detection and log | ✗ | you write it | ✓ |
| Stays in CorelDRAW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Price | part of CorelDRAW | your time | free demo, paid license |
Name badges, certificates, business cards, labels, anything with a QR code - everything that goes straight to the printer and does not need archiving piece by piece. Plain text substitution, no unusual typography, dozens rather than hundreds, and if you do split, PDF/X-1a is enough. If your work looks like that, the rest of this page is not for you and Print Merge will serve you better than anything paid.
exportPDF is a macro for CorelDRAW X6 and newer. It bypasses Print Merge entirely: it reads the CSV itself, fills the named objects in your template and exports one print-ready PDF per row straight out of CorelDRAW, with no PostScript and no Distiller - so transparency is preserved. File and folder names are composed from the placeholders {cislo}, {jmeno}, {prezdivka}, {velikost}, {kod}, {docName}.
On top of that it assembles numbers from graphic symbols, fits a club or sponsor logo inside a digit, adds diacritics to fonts that lack them (10 languages including the Nordic Å, Ø, Æ, Ð, Þ), and in sheet mode duplicates named groups on a sheet according to quantities from the spreadsheet. It also draws laser cut contours for a cutting plotter. Duplicate products are skipped, colliding file names renamed, and both are counted into the log and the closing summary.
A 200-jersey order that used to take four hours of copy-paste now takes about ten minutes. The demo is free and full-featured: 30 runs, 20 CSV rows. exportPDF for CorelDRAW · pricing · support and FAQ. Working in Illustrator? There is a version for it, and a comparison with the Variables panel.
I have been building exportPDF since 2025. It came out of my own need to automate personalized print - and I use it in production every day. Read the whole story
Aleš Ulrych
info@exportpdf.cz
