Solid shape or line version
Open the solid file when the animal has to read at a glance, on a sticker, a gift tag or a one-ink print. Some solids are the bare edge with little or nothing inside, as in the cat silhouettes, German Shepherds, horses, camels and flamingos. The cartoon dinosaurs have no holes at all, so each one cuts out whole. Others are papercuts with the detail carved through the black: fur on the fox and the bison, feathers on the perched birds, chickens and mallards, skin folds on the elephants and whole faces on the cat heads.
The line versions differ more. Some are one even band around the edge with the middle empty, the cleanest shape to trace around or color in. The cats, turtles and bunny heads work this way, and the papercut birds and chickens lose every feather in their outlines. Others are full drawings. Dog Silhouettes and Detailed Outlines draws 20 breeds standing and as head portraits, the fish outlines put scales and fin rays on 17 species, and the pond ducks and whole-body bunnies carry eyes and other face details that their plain solids leave out. In the mallard, bison and lion sets the outline traces every cut-in mark, so it prints as a busy line drawing. Detailed line art leaves room for coloring, but it can break into hundreds of pieces if you cut it.
Cutting, bridges and stencil panels
For cut paper, look for a bridged outline, with short gaps left in the line so the paper inside the animal stays joined to the paper around it. The corgi, Labrador, dachshund, raccoon, paw print, hammerhead shark, starfish and horse head outlines are built like this, and the salmon tie their inner loops to the edge with small bands.
A few sets go further:
- Paint stencils. Golden Retriever and Yorkie include negative masks, a black panel with the dog opened out of it.
- Framed stencils. Each owl sits in a square frame, held by thin bridges.
- Wing cutouts. Four of the dragonflies come as one-piece stencils with the wing cells opened as windows.
- Fold and cut. The butterfly outlines include half wings to lay on a fold and wings filled with rose, iris or fern patterns.
- Two colors. The orca layered files keep the black body and the white markings apart for stacking.
Many sets aren't bridged, so eyes, spots and enclosed bits come loose: the Great Dane, French bulldog and stingray files, the separate birds in the flocks and the dashed trails behind the bumblebees. The bee, ladybug and cat face guides say plainly that theirs aren't one-piece stencil sheets. Add bridges in your software or lift the loose pieces with transfer tape, and cut a scrap at your final size first.
Files, sizes and page layouts
Most PNGs are 2,400 or 3,000 pixels on the long side with a transparent background. Most DXF files are set in inches, and a handful use millimeters, among them the cartoon dinosaurs, the doves and the horse heads. The corgi, Labrador, dachshund, paw print, starfish, dove and horse head DXFs open exactly 4 inches wide, and several SVGs carry no real-world size, so set the width after you import.
The PDFs usually print one, four or six to a page, and a full US Letter page puts most animals at about 6 to 7 inches on the long side. Some sets repeat one design across the smaller sheets as the cats, turtles, flying birds, camels and elephants do. The owl, crab, ladybug, dove and flamingo sheets mix designs instead, and the chicken and dove pages set the solid and the outline of one design on the same sheet. Print at 100% or Actual Size rather than fit to page, and place the PNG or SVG yourself when you want the animal without the small header most pages carry.
Choosing by animal
Dogs and paws. Ten single-breed sets go beyond the 20-breed collection, from an English bulldog with papercut wrinkles and a husky pulling a sled to dachshunds in all three coats and a Yorkie In Loving Memory design. The paw prints come clawed for dogs and clawless for cats, in trails, name frames and memorial motifs. A second paw set keeps to the dog paw, with trails, a ring of eight prints and three blank name frames.
Cats, bunnies and small animals. The cats hold 20 poses and the cat heads run from realistic longhairs to a winking kitten. The bunny heads have no faces, while the whole-body bunnies leap, nap and curl inside a crescent moon. Capybaras wear oranges on their heads, rats come with five mice and rubber ducks wear hats and sunglasses.
Birds. The flying birds range from a barn swallow to a V of geese and an open birdcage, and the perched papercuts include a cardinal, a wren and a bird at its nest. There are peace doves with olive branches and two blank frames, park ducks and ducklings, realistic mallards, barn, snowy and horned owls, and flamingos with palms and hibiscus.
Bugs and butterflies. Fine-line bugs give one each of 20 creatures, from a stag beetle to a garden snail. Ladybugs come with counting and tracing templates, bumblebees with flowers and hexagons, and cartoon caterpillars with a chrysalis and a four-stage life cycle. The luna moths fly under moon phases or frame a blank name.
Horses, cattle and the farm. Whole horses gallop, graze and clear a jump, with a carousel horse among them. The horse heads run from a foal to a chess knight, and bucking broncs come with riders, lariats and desert suns. The bison travel with calves and in herds, and the cow set runs from a Holstein and a Highland to show cattle and a longhorn skull. The chickens add hens, roosters, chicks and a weathervane. Pigs run from piglets and two show pigs to a piggy bank and a pork cuts chart.
Woodland and wild. Red, arctic and fennec foxes, raccoons, deer with fawns and antlers, and howling wolves cover the woods. From farther off come one- and two-hump camels, African and Asian elephants with calves and mandala patterns, and lions with lionesses, cubs and ten maned heads.
Sea life and fish. Whales run from humpbacks to a narwhal, and the orcas, hammerheads and twelve-species shark outlines join stingrays and mantas, jellyfish, 16 crabs, sea stars and the turtles, which mix sea turtles with tortoises. The octopus set curls every arm into a spiral and draws each pose one way only, 14 in solid and 6 in line. For fish, pick the 17-species set, koi with lotus and lily pads, or leaping salmon with grizzlies.
Dinosaurs. The cartoon dinosaurs give 16 chunky designs and four simple minis. The T. rex set is mostly drawn in detail, 14 tyrannosaurs from a skull and a skeleton to a hatchling, with six prehistoric companions.
Tattoo style. Bear silhouettes draws 20 bears in furry fine line, and Butterfly and Rose pairs a shaded rose with a butterfly. The fine-line bugs add flash sheets of four, and the bulls are mostly heads and longhorn skulls with mirrored PDFs. The monarch set pairs each outline with an orange color reference, and the butterfly tattoo designs come in fine and bold lines, forward and mirrored, printed at 1, 2 and 4 inches, with no DXF. Print at your final size on plain paper before you show one to your artist.
Pumpkin carving stencils
Black Cat & Witch and Ghost hold 40 designs each, ten at every level from Easy and Cute to Spooky and Advanced. Each design shows in solid black, the part you carve away, and again in thin lines for transferring onto the pumpkin. A size page matches designs to pumpkins of roughly 6 to 14 inches, and an 8-page carving guide comes with each. Both are PDF only, with a 1-inch line on every page to check the print, and the guides leave the sharp tools to an adult.