^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Flag Types

Analsysis of the FOTW Library

See also:

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

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