This is one a series of posts on how to draw world flags. Finding the specifications for these flags, and attempting to reproduce the flag perfectly, according to the specifications, is a great way to teach yourself basic graphics programming.

Like many flags, you’ll find a reasonably detailed description of the layout of the Italian Flag in Wikipedia. Here’s the sketch I came up with after reading that article:

Like the French flag, this flag has a 3:2 aspect ratio and three equal stripes. The only difference is the color.

For the Italian flag, the article specifies a list of Pantone colors, and provides RGB equivalents, which I’ve rendered in Processing as:

color greenColor = color(0,146,70);    // Fern Green
color whiteColor = color(241,242,241); // Bright White
color scarletColor = color(206,43,55); // Flame Scarlet

Interestingly, the RGB version white color as provided in the Wikipedia article has a slight greenish skew, which is not reflected in either the CMYK or HSV equivalents. The difference is slight enough that you won’t likely notice it (especially since it is sitting next to a large green area).

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Next: The Union Jack