Free New Zealand SVG files: map outline, silhouette and more

The shape of New Zealand

At the library’s standard size New Zealand is 72 mm wide and 100 mm tall. It is 3 pieces: the largest part and 2 islands or separate parts large enough to cut. It is drawn on an equal-area projection centred on New Zealand, so its proportions are its own and not those of a world map, on which places far from the equator look stretched.

To make it cuttable, islands under about half a percent of the whole are left out, and inlets and spits narrower than 1.4 mm at this size are closed or removed. The rest of the coast keeps its bays and headlands.

Making something with New Zealand

The broadest part of New Zealand, where a heart or a word fits best, is 18 mm across at this size, which is too narrow for a heart inside the outline, so that design is left out and the heart, disc and tile versions frame the shape instead. To mark a town, add a small heart or star in your cutting software; Wellington, the capital, is the usual choice.

For a car window or a suitcase, cut the outline or the silhouette 100 to 130 mm tall in permanent vinyl. For a wooden sign, the tile and disc are one piece and work as paint stencils.

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