Free yin yang SVG files

How the sign is drawn

Draw a circle. On its upright diameter draw two smaller circles, each half as wide, one above the centre and one below. The S-shaped line runs round the left of one small circle and the right of the other. That is the whole construction, and it makes the two halves the same shape and the same area. Each half then gets a dot of the other colour at the centre of its round head; here the dots are just under a third as wide as the small circles.

The sign comes from Chinese philosophy, where yin (dark) and yang (light) are opposites that depend on each other, and each holds the seed of the other. It is also called the taijitu.

Cutting it in one colour

In a single colour of vinyl only the dark half is cut, so the light half needs an edge. The files add a thin ring round the circle for that. The dark dot in the light half has nothing to hold it, so it is a separate piece: lift everything on transfer tape and it stays in place. For wood, acrylic or card, use the one-piece stencil, which ties that dot to the tail beside it.

For a two-colour result, use the layered file. The light layer has a hole for the dark dot and the dark layer has a hole for the light dot, so the two can sit side by side on one backing with no overlap.

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