Free galaxy SVG files

Cutting a shape made of arms

A spiral galaxy is mostly long curved arms, and an arm is only as strong as its narrowest point. On these files each arm is about 9 mm across at its widest and narrows to about 2.5 mm at a rounded tip when the galaxy is 100 mm across. That holds well in adhesive vinyl and in card. For a small sticker, or for anything laser cut from wood, use the galaxy in a circle, the jar or the heart instead: there the galaxy is an opening in a solid shape and nothing can snap.

The stars cut into the arms are holes 2 to 3 mm across at full size. Below about 80 mm they are fiddly to weed, and you can simply leave them in: the galaxy reads without them. Galaxies look best in material that catches the light, so try holographic, glitter or glow in the dark vinyl on a dark background.

Which way a galaxy turns

As drawn, the arms wind clockwise on their way out from the core. Flip the file in your cutting software if you want it to turn the other way: both directions are seen in the sky, depending on which side of a galaxy faces us. The barred spiral is the nearest to our own galaxy, which has a bar through its middle, though nobody has seen the Milky Way from outside.

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