National colours of Canada
The national colours of Canada (French: Couleurs nationales du Canada) are red and white, the former being symbolic of England and the latter of France, the colours having been used representatively by those countries in the past.[1] The maple is one of the national symbols and red is both the first leaf colour after spring budding and the autumn colour of maple leaves.[2] The colours are most prominently evident on the national flag of Canada and it has been said they were declared the country's official colours when King George V proclaimed his Canadian coat of arms in 1921.[3] However, there is no mention of national colours in the proclamation. Similarly, the creation of Queen Elizabeth II's royal standard in 1962 is also considered to be when red and white were unofficially set as the national colours.
Reproduction[edit]
For the Federal Identity Program operated by the Treasury Board Secretariat, official and signage colours are specified in technical specification T-145.[9] The red colour is named FIP red and represented by the hexadecimal triplet FF0000, the 8-bit per channel RGB value (255,0,0), the CMYK colour (0,100,100,0), or the Pantone Colour Matching System colour Pantone 032.[9][10] White is represented by CMYK colour white (255,255,255) and hexadecimal FFFFFF and the de facto national colour, black, is represented as CMYK colour black; six more colours are defined for use by the government.[9]
A second red colour, known as safety red, is also specified, but, not used for official symbols; it is represented by the hexadecimal triplet E8112D, RGB value (230,15,45), CMYK colour (0,90,75,0), or Pantone colour 185.[9]