# Making a heritage keepsake with the Country Borders Map preset

> a whole-country silhouette with bold borders and subtle regions

A whole country, reduced to its outline, is one of the most recognizable and meaningful shapes you can give someone - the place a family emigrated from, a heritage, a flag. This preset frames a nation at country scale: land on warm parchment, sea in soft blue, a bold national border, and faint internal regions for context. It ships set up on Italy; search any country and re-center.

## What you need

### Print (recommended)

- The exported 4096 px PNG and a frame, or a UV flatbed onto white [acrylic](https://yxecreations.com/pages/acrylic-sheets)

### Laser

- 3 mm [Baltic birch](https://yxecreations.com/collections/laser-grade-plywood) or acrylic; laser engraver or cutter

## Step 1 - Center the country



Open [the Country Borders Map preset](/map-designer?preset=country-borders-map). It loads on Italy at zoom 5.2. Search your country and adjust zoom so the whole nation sits in frame with a little sea or neighboring land around it - large countries need a lower zoom, small ones higher.

Country borders render from a low-zoom boundary source, so keep the zoom in the country-scale range (roughly 4–7) rather than city zoom.

## Step 2 - Tune the look



One **Nation** layer: parchment land, soft blue sea, a bold national border line, and a faint region line for internal context.

- Hide the regions for a clean, pure silhouette; keep them for an atlas feel.
- Thicken the national border for a bolder, more graphic outline.
- Recolor land and sea to a flag's colors for a national-pride piece.

## Step 3 - Export



- **Print:** high-res PNG (4096 px), Background on.
- **Laser cut silhouette:** export the land as a cut path to get the country as a standalone wooden shape.
- **Small-polygon cleanup** on so small offshore islands don't become tiny loose pieces (or keep them if they matter).

## UV & Sublimation Printing

### Framed print



1. Export the PNG and print at 250–300 mm on matte paper.
2. Caption with the country name in its own language for a heritage gift.
3. UV variant: print on white acrylic for a crisp, modern outline.

## Laser Cutting & Engraving

### Cut or engrave the silhouette



1. Cut the country outline from birch or acrylic as a standalone shape - a magnet, ornament, or wall piece.
2. Engrave the regions and a city dot onto the silhouette before cutting.
3. For a layered piece, cut the sea as a base and inlay the land silhouette on top.

## Make it yours

- Heritage gift: the country a family emigrated from, with a small heart at the home town.
- Flag-colored: recolor land and sea to the national flag.
- Two-country piece: birth country and adopted country side by side.
- Map pin set: cut several country silhouettes as fridge magnets for places someone has lived.

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Open the tool: https://www.mylasertools.com/learn/guides/country-borders-map
Read online: https://www.mylasertools.com/learn/guides/country-borders-map