Free hippo SVG files

Sizes, materials and what to watch when cutting a hippo

A hippo is all bulk, so it is one of the easiest animals to cut. Every file is 100 mm on its longer side. On the hippo silhouette the legs are about 11 mm wide and nothing is thinner than the tail, which is about 2.5 mm wide, so the shape can go down to 30 mm for stickers and is sturdy in 3 mm plywood, acrylic and felt at any size. The yawning hippopotamus has four small extra points to look after: the tusks, each about 4 mm wide at the root and rounded at the tip.

The faces carry the finer cuts: a mouth line about 2.5 mm wide, two nostrils, two eyes and three whisker dots a side, each a little under 3 mm across. Keep the faces at 70 mm or wider in vinyl, and engrave the dots rather than cutting them on a laser.

Which hippo for which job

The hippo silhouette, the baby hippo calf and the mother and baby are for nursery walls, zoo trips and animal alphabets. The hippo in a tutu is a dance and birthday favourite, and the Christmas hippo in a hat is for the season when everyone sings about wanting one. The hippo in the water is a round design for coasters and mugs: only the ears, eyes and nostrils show, as they do in a real river.

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