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Greece: Construction Details and Colors

image by Zoltan Horvath, 6 June 2024

Shade of the Greek Flag

See also:

Greece

Shade of the Greek Flag

There is no officially prescribed shade of blue for the Greek flag (photo) in the 1978 Law. The 1970 Law that abolished the plain cross flag did not specify a particular shade either, but it did provide that all flags should conform with "prototype" flags lodged with two government departments.

The shade of blue on the prototypes was, probably, very dark hence the very dark shade of flags made in 1970-1975. A lighter shade of blue is used nowadays (by convention, presumably) but still not as light as United Nations blue.
Yannis Natsinas, 14 November 2000

Greek flag represented with "Bavarian" blue colour

image by Tomislav Todorović, 3 July 2013

According to Smith [smi82], the Greek flag was intermediate blue in the 19th century, which was derived from the flag of Bavaria, the then King's land of origin. According to the same source, while the Regime of the Colonels has introduced a very dark shade of blue, the flag law at the preparation time (1979) of the source's original edition ([smi80] was prescribing "light blue," without a precise definition. However, the Bavarian flag was actually light blue, and in the bilingual (Greek and German) official gazette, where the 1833 Decree was published (scan), the Greek word κύανος was actually translated as himmelblau (sky blue) in German. On the other hand, several sources published in 1970s and 1980s did contain the images of Greek national flag in light blue color. A good example is Carmpton [cra84], which depicted the flag in color B--.
Tomislav Todorović, 3 July 2013

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.

For Greece, PMS reflex blue. The vertical flag is the horizontal version reversed and turned 90 degrees anti-clockwise - the cross at top left.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012

There is a Law 851/1978, Regarding the National Flag, but it isn't so helpful regarding its colors:
https://www.e-nomothesia.gr/kat-semaia/n-851-1978.html (in Greek)

There is the Presidential Decree 348/1980 on War Flags of the Armed Forces and the Gendarmerie, but nothing about their colors:
https://www.e-nomothesia.gr/kat-semaia/pd-348-1980.html (in Greek)

The Presidency website has pages about national symbols (including the national flag), but with a photo only:
https://www.presidency.gr/en/presidency/the-flag

Other sources for colors:

The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives Pantone colors: PMS 285 (blue)

The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] gives approximate colors in Pantone and CMYK systems:
Blue: Pantone 286c, CMYK 100-60-0-5
Red: Pantone 193c, CMYK 0-90-65-10
Light blue: Pantone 549c, CMYK 50-0-0-20

The Album des Pavillons 2019 added one more color for Athos:
Yellow: Pantone Process yellow c, CMYK 0-0-100-0

Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12] gives Pantone colors: PMS Reflex Blue

The Album des Pavillons 2023 [d2s23] already specifies the colors of the flags in three color systems:
Blue: Pantone 286c, CMYK 100-83-2-0, RGB 0-51-160
Blue: Pantone 549c, CMYK 60-21-22-3, RGB 107-164-184
Red: Pantone 193c, CMYK 16-100-64-6, RGB 195-12-62
Yellow: Pantone Yellow c, CMYK 3-9-92-0, RGB 254-221-0

Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone system: PMS 286C (blue), and PMS White

Wikipedia states: "The government has not specified exactly which shade of blue should be used for the flag, and as such flags with many varying shades exist", and cites colors from the Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00], from Flag Manual - Beijing 2008, and from Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12].

Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Cyan: Hex. # 001489, RGB 0-20-137, CMYK 100-87-0-20, Pantone Reflex Blue, RAL 5002
White: Hex. # FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK N/A, Pantone N/A, RAL N/A

Zoltan Horvath, 6 June 2024