Last modified: 2005-03-26 by phil nelson
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Editor's Note: In November, Jorge Candeias began reviewing certain items regarding flag types on FOTW. This series is still on-going as the November material was being edited.
Back in September (2003), I downloaded all the image zipfiles from FOTW and the result was a snapshot of the image files at that stage of development of the website.
These image zipfiles also include a lot of obsolete images, no longer linked from the pages but still part of the zips due to errors and omissions in deletes.
However, there are so many of them that they can be used to collect a few data about how common the various types of flags really are around the world. With a few caveats:
Caveat # 1 - Due to differentiated country representation in FOTW, not only because the editors work at different paces, but also because the contributors have widely different degrees of information from different countries of the world, some flags more common in those countries better represented in the site will have their abundance overestimated, and vice-versa.
Caveat # 2 - FOTW GIFfers are a lot faster in the GIFfing of simple flags than when the flag is complex. This leads to under-representation of the more complex types of flags and, consequently, to the underestimation of their abundance.
Caveat # 3 - The types of flags I selected are debatable, and so are the choices about the placement of some flags. I will try to make my choices clear, but sometimes some subjectivity and deciding simply on the basis of what "feels right" is inevitable. This happens mostly in subtypes of the more generic types (we won't deal with them for a while, though), but will come up here and there from the top. Despite being debatable, and althogh that debate will be welcome, I won't change anything in methodology from your input - I just don't have the time to do it all over again. That input will seve solely to clarify some choices and how valid they are (or aren't). Some help in terminology will be welcome, though.
Caveat # 4 - For all the reasons above, these figures should never be looked at as anything other than estimates and preliminary numbers. The are *not* definitive in any way.
Excluding icons and somesuch, we have basically 38 713 files divided amongst 5 types of images in FOTW: flags, construction sheets, roundels, symbols (COAS, seals and other related symbols) and maps. In September the respective numbers were:
Flags 31 354 80,99% Symbols 5 885 15,20% Construction sheets 1 094 2,83% Maps 216 0,56% Roundels 164 0,42%
That number includes also those images to colour that are to be found at the mist folder.
The basic division of flags is, of course, in their shapes. Here, I've grouped together square and rectangular flags in the largest cathegory and will always deal with them together. A special type of rectangular flags, though, will be treated separately: vertical flags.
Rectangular 26 548 84,11% Vertical 1 974 6,25% Swallotails 1 790 5,67% Triangular 776 2,46% Trapezoidal 110 0,35% Streamers 108 0,34% Hanging 101 0,32% Bizarre shapes 54 0,17% With tongues 31 0,10% With a round fly 21 0,07% With not straight fly 16 0,05% With streamer 13 0.04% Wimpels 13 0.04% Paralellograms 10 0,03%
Some of these cathegories are self-explanatory (and the bigger ones will be delt with in closer detail later on), but some aren't.
- "Trapezoidal" flags are those shaped as triangles with the tip
(fly) cut off.
- "Hanging" flags are gonfannons and the like. I've only included here
those images that show the horizontal hanging system, the rest was put under
"vertical flags".
- "Bizarre shapes" are all those weirdly shaped flags that don't add
up to at least 10 instances each.
- Flags "with tongues" are flags of the general structure of the
venetian flag.
- Flags "with a round fly" are just that: flags shaped as shields with
round flies. Some algerian flags are good examples.
- Flags "with not straight fly" are those that would be rectangular,
if it wasn't for some chunks taken off the fly, excluding similar categories,
like swallowtails. A good example is the ancient flag of Valencia, Spain
- Flags "with streamer" are a somewhat artificial cathegory of flags,
whose GIFs in FOTW include a streamer above.
- "Paralellograms" are those flags shaped as the ASCII-drawing below.
They are mostly from Poland.
The rectangular flags are subdivided as:
Plain fields 8 701 33,04% Bicolours 4 693 17,82% Tricolours 3 744 14,22% Striped 2 936 11,15% Tribands 2 719 10,32% Crosses 1 604 6,09% Bordered 989 3,76% Quartered 571 2,17% Gyronnies 147 0,56% Lozengies 92 0,35% Checquered 71 0,27% Semees 40 0,15% With bizarre fields 16 0,06% Interwoven 14 0,05%
I have spotted some errors in the meanwhile, so these numbers will take precedence over those posted back then. I will make subdivisions whenever in a given type or subtype can be spotted one or more subgroups with more than 10 flag images.
Starting with a rare type: the flags with round flies, or lanceolates. These can be divided in flags that can be considered as a rectangle with a semicircular fly added to it and those that start curving from the hoist:
Rectangular 13 61,90% Curved 8 38,10% Total 21 By countries, these two subtypes are divided thus: Rectangular Algeria 3 23,08% Spain 3 23,08% Tunisia 3 23,08% Others 4 30,77% Curved Algeria 4 50,0% Tunisia 3 37,5% Others 1 12,5%
The flags with tongues have one major subtype: those that look as if someone simply took a pair of scissors and a rectangular piece of cloth and opened narrow cuts to create the "tongues", as opposed to all the remaining subtypes, that work more as if indentations were removed from the fly, or as if small bits of cloth were sewn to it.
These flag images are divided thus: With cuts 11 35,48% Others 20 64,52% Total 31 By countries, these two subtypes are divided thus: With cuts Italy 11 100% Others Italy 6 30% Religious 5 25% Others 9 45%
Hanging flags
This category grew. This is, as I mentioned earlier, a category that shares with vertical flags many points of contact, and I decided to include here all those flags that were showing the method of hanging, with pole and all. But I got distracted and ended up putting in vertical flags many flags that fit the description.
Why did I make the separation? For two reasons: First of all, because vertical flags are those that are higher than long, and many of these fly from poles the normal way; secondly because some flags that hang are not higher than long. Good examples are the roman vexilla.
It would be more accurate and significant to make a study of these flags with relation to how they are displayed, but that's not for a quick visual classification of images, as the one I produced.
I found two major subdivisions of hanging flags: rectangular flags and flags with three tongues:
Three tongues 57 46,34% Rectangular 56 45,53% Others 10 8,13% Total 123 By countries, these three subtypes are divided thus: Three tongues It