Free first day of school sign SVG files

One board for every year

The idea of the board is that it is reused: the same sign, the same doorstep, a year apart. So the lettering here is permanent and the answers are not. Cut the heading and the labels from permanent vinyl, stick them to a chalkboard or a painted board, and write the grade, the age and the teacher’s name on the rules with a liquid chalk pen, which wipes off with a damp cloth. Season a chalk-painted board first by rubbing the side of a stick of chalk over it and wiping it off, and test the pen in a corner: on a porous board liquid chalk can leave a ghost.

If you would sooner not write the grade by hand, cut the grade names. The two sheets hold fifteen, from preschool and pre-K to 12th grade, and their notes give the widths that make them one size; use removable vinyl for these, or put each on a strip of card and fix it with removable putty.

Sizes

A board that a small child can hold and that still reads in a photo is about 300 by 400 mm. The lettering sets here are 100 mm wide as published, so cut them 280 mm wide and they fill a board of that size with a margin; the labels come out about 18 mm tall and the rules leave room for writing about 25 mm high. For a child of four or five, a board of 250 by 350 mm is easier to hold: cut the lettering 230 mm wide.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions