Free octopus SVG files

Arms, curls and suckers: what to check before you cut

An octopus is all arms, and each arm tapers from about 8 mm at the head to under 3 mm at its curled tip when the file is at its own size of 100 mm. The curls are the delicate part: inside each one is a small teardrop of waste that has to be weeded out. In vinyl and card that is easy at 100 mm and fiddly below 70 mm. For small work use the bold octopus, whose arms never go under 5 mm.

The suckers are round holes that shrink along the arm and stop where they would get too small to cut, a little under 2 mm across. Weed them with a pin, or leave them in for a plainer arm. On a laser they engrave well as dots if you would rather not cut them through.

In plywood or acrylic the curled tips are short and well supported, so an octopus is sturdier than it looks, but keep the classic and drifting octopuses at 120 mm or more. The tentacle frame and the mandala are the strongest of the tentacle designs.

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