Basic Infantry Flag Templates --

You are all free to use these templates if you would like. Certainly change the colors to whatever you want . . . after all, I'm sure that your country won't want to use these without a few changes.

All of these (as well as the cavalry flag templates I'll upload in a few days) are in 16-color ".gif" format. You are certainly allowed to change these colors (easy to do in most graphics programs) .

The two "German" patterns (as well as one of the "French" ones) have a central oval.

What I would suggest is that you find an image that represents your fictional nation (Saxe-Bearstein, for instance, uses a red bear). Some countries used animals such as lions, horses, eagles, etc., while others used the monarch's cipher. Use what you want and 'paste' it in.

Often, with the "German" style flags, there was something in the corners . . . often a crown or cipher (Saxe-Bearstein uses grape leaves). Sometimes there was something on the ends of the "cross", such as grenades. Use or not, it is your choice.

For Saxe-Bearstein (which uses a slight variation of the German-style with upright oval), I use the 'corner-rays' in the infantry coat color (red for line; green for jagers), while the cross is in the unit's facing color (various). The color of the central oval is the same as the 'hat tape" color (usually white or yellow . . . and black if there's no hat tape).

The "French" style (simple central cross) was actually used by others besides the French. France used a white central cross; England a red cross. Use whatever color you want.

The final template is sort of a hybrid. It uses the French-style cross, but I've added a central oval to take your national symbol.

Of course, once you've got your flags designed the way you want, you will have to "mirror" them so that you can print them and fold them around your flagstaffs. And don't forget to leave a bit of 'blank area' between the two halves for the 'wrap-around'.

And, of course, these templates are too big. You will need to reduce the size . . . and will probably want to copy them to a more easily scalable format . . . but these should do fine for your design work . . . and, of course, they post to the net very easily.

So I encourage you to have fun and again, feel free to play around with these templates.

If you like, post the results on your blogs . . . indeed, I encourage you . . . once you've got something you are happy with . . . to use them as your "photograph" (aka "avatar") if you don't already have something. Flags look great when you leave a comment on someone else's blog.

Have fun!


-- Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein