Free zebra SVG files

Stripes that hold together

A zebra is a black animal with white stripes, or the other way round, and either way a cutting machine has to deal with dozens of separate bands. In these files each white stripe is a window that tapers to a point at both ends and stops about 2 mm short of the outline at 100 mm. The black that is left forms a rim round the whole animal with a bar between every pair of stripes, so the zebra lifts off the mat in one piece. Put white card or vinyl behind it and the stripes appear.

Every file is 100 mm on its longer side. The bars between stripes are about 3 mm wide on the standing zebra and the legs narrow to about 4.5 mm above the hoof, so 100 mm is a sensible smallest size for the striped designs. The zebra silhouette has no stripes and can go much smaller.

Black on white, or white on black

Cut from black and backed with white, a zebra looks as it does in life. Cut from white vinyl and stuck on a dark wall, a laptop or a car window, the same file gives a white zebra with dark stripes, which reads just as well. For a nursery, try grey on white, or back the zebra face with a pale colour instead of white.

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