Not Scary, Just Weird: 4 Free Printable Halloween Masks

Gerry Hattrick 7 January 2023 Updated 9 February 2023

Crude drawing of a bat hanging upside down

Short version: you can have a Halloween costume in about four minutes. Download one of the four free masks below, print it on regular 8.5" x 11" paper, cut along the dotted lines, put it on your face. No shipping, no sewing, no $60 polyester nightmare you wear once and then guiltily surrender to a landfill.

Fair warning: none of these are scary. No blood, no fangs, no man-with-a-hook energy. They are three strange little faces having three separate bad days, plus a hamster. Which is arguably more unsettling than a rubber skeleton, and far easier to explain when someone corners you at a party.

What You Need

A printer. Inkjet, laser, the dispirited office one down the hall. It makes no difference.
Paper. Standard 8.5" x 11". Cardstock if you are an overachiever.
Scissors. The dotted cut lines are already drawn for you.
String, elastic, or tape. Optional. A rubber band works. So does holding it to your face like a Victorian opera patron who has just received bad news.

Total cost: whatever your printer ink is worth in emotional damage. Total time: four minutes, perhaps six if your printer needs talking down off a ledge.

The Masks

Every mask below arrives with dotted cut lines already marked at the eyes and mouth, so you are not eyeballing where to plunge the scissors.

1. The Lovesick

2. The Interior Designer

3. The Deadline

4. Do Not Perceive Me

📦 Download all 4 masks (ZIP) 📦

How to Make It (It's Not Rocket Science)

Click. Pick a mask above and download the high-res PDF.
Print. Cmd+P (Ctrl+P on Windows). Standard 8.5" x 11", scaling set to "Actual Size" or 100%, not "Fit to Page," or the mask prints shrunken and the eye holes stop lining up with your actual eyes, which defeats the entire concept of a mask.
Cut. Cut around the outside of the face first, then the dotted circles at the eyes and the dotted oval at the mouth. The mouth hole is optional, but it is the difference between wearing a mask and yelling through a piece of paper.
Wear. Three options: tape it to a paint stirrer or chopstick and hold it up, punch two holes at the sides and thread string or elastic behind your ears, or simply carry it and raise it to your face whenever someone asks what you are supposed to be.

You are done. Go to the party. Stop overthinking it.

Make It Look Less Last-Minute (Optional, 5 Extra Minutes)

Print on cardstock. 65 lb or heavier. Stops the mask flopping and reads as intentional rather than desperate.
Back it with cereal-box cardboard. Glue stick, trim the edges. Costs nothing, survives the whole night.
Go monochrome head to toe. All-black outfit, black-and-white mask. Suddenly it is a "look" and not a "printout."
Print all four and bring friends. One paper mask is a shrug. Two matching masks is a bit. Four is a whole thing, and everyone will assume it took planning it did not take.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are these masks actually free?

Yes. Free to download, free to print, no email required. Print as many as you like until your printer files a complaint.

What size paper do I need?

Standard 8.5" x 11" (US Letter). A4 works too. Set print scaling to 100% and you lose a few millimeters at the edges that nobody will ever notice.

Do I have to cut out the eyes myself?

The cut lines are already drawn: dotted circles at the eyes, a dotted oval at the mouth. Follow the dots and you cannot go wrong.

Can I print these in black and white?

Three of the four are already pure black and white. "Do Not Perceive Me" has a small pink nose that prints fine as light grey. You lose the pink and nothing else.

Are these scary enough for Halloween?

No. That is the entire point. If you want gore, this is the wrong page. If you want to arrive as an unexplained sad heart with an arrow through it and answer no questions, you are in exactly the right place.

Do these work for kids?

Yes, though eye placement is sized for an adult face. For smaller kids you may need to cut the eye holes slightly closer together or trim the outer edge down. An adult should do the cutting.