File talk:Flag of Switzerland.svg

Two aspects

As I see it, there are two aspects of this flag that need to be agreed on.

1) The geometry of the cross, specifically the size of the cross compared to the size of the flag, and the thickness of the cross.

2) The color.

First, the color. There are currently 3 competing versions of this flag. Zscout uses #c30009, Reisio uses #ff0000, and E Pluribus Anthony uses #DA2724. It seems to me that Reisio's color is too bright. For example, the flag photograph at [1], or the diagram at [2]. Vexilla-Mundi suggests #ce1126, though that site is not very trustworthy in my experience. Flags of the World, which generally seems more trustworthy, doesn't say anything about the color.

Next, the geometry. In Zscout's version, the cross is 0.68, and the thickness of each arm is 0.2 (where the side length of the flag is 1). Reisio's version is the same. In E Pluribus Anthony's version, the cross is 0.67, and the arm thickness is 0.2. Which is to say, all three versions have nearly identical geometry. (Note that vexilla-mundi and the diagram at w:Image:Flag of Switzerland at Sea.png both suggest 0.625 for the cross size, and 0.1875 for the arm thickness.) User:dbenbenn 15:43, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

The geometry of the cross has been officially defined as each arm being one sixth longer than they are wide (3 4). The current version conforms to this specification.

The color is not officially defined (afaik 3). Occasionally the bright #ff0000 red seems too bright to me, but it's being viewed on a monitor, not in the real world - if it were used to dye threads and then woven into a flag, it would look different. I (obviously) think the other colors used are too dark, and that if we go darker than #ff0000, that it should not be by much. Admin.ch uses #ff0000 for their coat of arms image, and User:Wiki-vr, who apparently lives in or near Switzerland, has assured me the bright red is much more common (see: en:User_talk:Reisio#.22Swiss.22_red_.28III.29)

The space between the cross and the side of the flag is also not officially defined (afaik :p 3 4), but I think what we have now is appropriately representative. On top of the Swiss Consul's instructions to Zscout that fit these proportions, I compared it to the following photographs of real Swiss flags and it's basically an exact match:

• this one, from swissworld.org, which I would guess was taken in Switzerland
• this one, of a flag which was apparently purchased in Switzerland
• this one, in the alps
• and, finally, this one of the Swiss flag at the United Nations in New York.

¦ Reisio 02:46, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

I think the flag shown here should represent as well as possible those flags seen in Switzerland and elsewhere in 'real life'. Therefore we should take into account the difference in colours seen through a monitor. #FF0000 appears much brighter on a monitor than on a real flag, and the difference should be compensated in order to create a realistic flag. Swissworld uses #A9001A which looks natural to me despite of being darker than the other shades mentioned here. I doubt we'll be able to find a shade that most of us accept, but I certainly think it must be less bright than the current one. –Vzb83 14:01, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I tried to use shades from flag makers from .ch, but I guess some people had issues with that. The Swiss flags I have, paper and cloth, do not have the FF0000 red shade do it. I will try to find some Pantone shades soon. Zach ^{(Smack Back)} 19:18, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

	255	reisio
	250
	245
	240
	235
	230
	225
	220	e pluribus anthony
	215
	210	vexilla-mundi.com
	205
	200
	195		Zscout370
	190
	185
	180
	175
	170
	165
	160
	155

Some samplings I took from the photos above suggest something more around where everyone else is. Anything around 230-220 (pure red) wouldn't bother me at all - naturally I prefer the top end of that range, as well. Anything below 210 looks far too dark to me. ¦ Reisio 22:45, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I concur with Reisio. —Nightstallion (?) 22:48, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I found http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagge_der_Schweiz, so this could give us some hints. Zach ^{(Smack Back)} 05:37, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I think I found our answer, but might lead to more WTF's than answers. The instructions that I got from the Swiss Consul on how to draw the flag is replicated at http://www.cdbund.admin.ch/downloads/CD_Bund_Handbuch_1.pdf. On page four of this document, it gives the following red (rot) colors that can be used:

Farbdefinition Rot

• CMYK: 0 / 100 / 100 / 0
• Pantone: 485 C / 485 U
• RGB: 255 / 0 / 0
• Hexadezimal: #FF0000
• Scotchcal: 100-13
• RAL: 320 Verkehrsrot

I need to see if Pantone 485 is a light shade, but I hope this helps. Zach ^{(Smack Back)} 05:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, have we always stuck with Pantone colors or CMYK or some other method? If so, we are going to have some conflicts on this one. Zach ^{(Smack Back)} 05:53, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I personally avoid CMYK like the plague. The conversion process to and from it seems quite unstandardized, resulting in quite different values depending on what tool you used. ¦ Reisio 21:40, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Pantone 485, according to the conversion table I (and apparently others) have been using, is about...

rgb(216,30,5)

Compare to pure red:

rgb(216,0,0)

A little darker than what Anthony had. ¦ Reisio 21:40, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Z, how'd you arrive at #ed1c23 [rgb(237,28,35)]? Scotchcal or RAL? ¦ Reisio 22:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I loaded up the page where the red logo was used (I think page 3, 4 or 5), took a screen shot. I pasted the screen shot in MS Paint, then copied the RGB codes it gave me into Inkscape. I got it converted to hexidermal there, then copied the result in a text editor. Zach ^{(Smack Back)} 03:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

That color is probably heavily dependent on your gamma settings. Using the same technique on this computer, for instance, gives #fc0044 [or rgb(252,0,68)]. Opening the PDF in Adobe Illustrator, I get #ff0000 for all the small shields, and #eb222a [rgb(235,34,42)] for the large CoA on page 2. To be pedantic, we should probably stick to the Pantone. ¦ Reisio 09:54, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Oops. Well, if you want to stick to Pantone, that is fine with me, but at least this has been solved. Zach ^{(Smack Back)} 07:16, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Done. It's far out how many people are responsible for this end result. :p ¦ Reisio 19:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

New Cat

I'm sorting Category:SVG sovereign state flags alphabetically. Please edit the cat tag to "Category:SVG sovereign state flags|Switzerland" Fry1989 (talk) 01:16, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

 Done. --ZooFari 01:29, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Other versions

{{editprotected}}

Please add:

• 
• 

mgeo talk 14:15, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

 Done by Zscout370 --Mormegil (talk) 14:41, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Who is the author?

Hi, i want to use this file on my own website. Every file on my website is descriptted (author/source, license, source file url). I have question about this file, "Flag of Switzerland.svg". Who is the author of this file? Who should I mentiond as a author? Why User:Marc Mongenet is called "the author" of this file, he made only one modificaiton!

Because he did the first file: me and others came in and figured out colors and design specifications. Just name all of the uploaders once and you will be good to go. User:Zscout370 ^{(Return fire)} 04:05, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

I think, that need really no authorship, s. {{PD-shape}}. Commons/Wikipedia users are also not the originators. You misunderstand the author field. -- πϵρήλιο ℗ 15:00, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Well, I believe in this case, the author field is more of who did the SVG file/code and that is what is usually done for images related to flags. User:Zscout370 ^{(Return fire)} 16:43, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Use polygon instead of two rectangles for the cross in SVG code

I believe the cross should be a polygon instead of a two rectangles that are on top of each other.

It would also be a few characters shorter:

<rect fill="#fff" height="6" width="20" x="6" y="13"/><rect fill="#fff" height="20" width="6" x="13" y="6"/>

vs:

<polygon fill="#fff" points="13,6 19,6 19,13 26,13 26,19 19,19 19,26 13,26 13,19 6,19 6,13 13,13"/>

I can't upload a new version as it's protected. --Tmarki (talk) 00:19, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

I've reached out to Zach, the author of the original SVG and he replied in email saying:

Unfortunately, I no longer have admin powers on the Commons due to inactivity. However, I do not oppose such a change to the file at all with this new code. You may also reference this email on the Commons discussion page.

So the new file should be the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1000" height="1000" viewBox="0 0 32 32"><rect fill="#f00" height="32" width="32"/><polygon fill="#fff" points="13,6 19,6 19,13 26,13 26,19 19,19 19,26 13,26 13,19 6,19 6,13 13,13"/></svg>

--Tmarki (talk) 15:07, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

{{Editprotected}}

 Done -- User: Perhelion 01:36, 16 October 2019 (UTC)