Free Massachusetts SVG files: state outline, silhouette and more

The shape of Massachusetts

At the library’s standard size Massachusetts is 100 mm wide and 61 mm tall. It is 3 pieces: the mainland and 2 islands or separate parts large enough to cut. The outline is the Census Bureau’s cartographic boundary for the state, drawn on a conformal conic projection centred on Massachusetts, so its proportions match a printed map of the state and not a map of the whole country, on which northern states look stretched.

To make it cuttable, islands under about half a percent of the state’s area are left out, and inlets and spits narrower than 1.4 mm at this size are closed or removed. The border itself is not smoothed: straight surveyed lines stay straight and rivers keep their bends.

Making something with Massachusetts

The broadest part of Massachusetts, where a heart or a word fits best, is 26 mm across at this size, which is too narrow for a heart inside the state, so that design is left out and the heart, disc and tile versions frame the state instead. To mark a town, add a small heart or star in your cutting software; Boston, the capital, is the usual choice.

For a car window cut the outline or the silhouette 100 to 130 mm wide in permanent vinyl. For a wooden sign, the tile and disc are one piece and work as paint stencils. The split version takes a name in any typeface about 12 mm tall.

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