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Specifications and Construction Sheet (Malta)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin

Specifications and Construction Sheet

See also:

The George Cross (Malta)
Malta

Specifications and Construction Sheet

The Department of Information, a Government Department, issued a booklet entitled Instructions on the Use of Flags in 1992 [available online at the Maltese Government Official Website]. In that booklet, the national flag is shown 100 mm in the hoist while the height (and also the width) of the George Cross complete with fimbriation is 27 mm. Since that gives the relative size, and from an official publication, I believe it [the image above] may be considered correct but that is only my own opinion.
Adrian Strickland, 3 December 2000

According to the Instructions on the Use of Flags, which I have earlier quoted is, the distance from the top and hoist edges of flag:

to the edge of the fimbriation is 4% of the hoist, and
to the centre of the George Cross is 14% of the hoist.

Adrian Strickland, 28 December 2000

[The overall cross dimension of] 27 is a mighty odd number in a flag with overall proportions of 100:150, but maybe the explanation is that the red fimbriation has a thickness of 1, so the 27 are 1+25+1 instead. That could also make the distance from the edge of the flag to the edge of the George Cross 4+1, which is nicer.
Ole Andersen, 2 February 2001

To draw the cross, draw a regular octagon within a circle and then draw isosceles right-angled triangles over a circle whose diameter is a side of that octagon. The octagon is constructed within a circle so that one divides the full angle (360°) into 8 angles of 45 degrees.
Željko Heimer, 13 April 2003

The graphical standards for the national flag of Malta issued by the Prime Minister's Office in February of this year was sent to me by Jos Poels. These show some differences to the specifications done by Antonio Martins (above). As far as I can tell the mixture of 27ths, 16ths and 8ths etc. mean a minimum unit size of 432 x 648, but perhaps someone will be able to bring this down a bit? As a matter of interest these standards include a colour recommendation and this is for (amongst other things) 186C in the Pantone Matching System.
Christopher Southworth, 2 April 2008

A more specific sheet is posted at http://www.doi.gov.mt/EN/state/National%20Flag%20Graphical%20Specifications.pdf. Another detail in this document is the following color specifications for the red color:
Pantone© 186c
C0 • M91 • Y76 • K6
R207 • G20 • B43 (# CF142B)
Web safe hex CC0000
Spot Colour - 50% rubine red • 50% warm red

Also, from reading the sheet, published by the Office of the Prime Minister, the only colors used on the national flag are white, black and red. Grey isn't even mentioned at all on this sheet, yet I see many flags (online and cloth) have silver/grey due to the St. George's Cross at the canton.
Zachary Harden, 5 August 2008

Concerning the use of grey, even the images in that official pdf-file use grey (and are not vectorial). Probably the flag is to be drawn using only those colors, the grey being an optical effect of detail black lines on white. It says that "The scope of this document is to help legitimate users reproduce the National Flag of Malta correctly." It seems concerned only with paper (and screen?) reproduction, not cloth.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 6 August 2008