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Using the Royal Coat of Arms

Overview

The Royal Coat of Arms is a symbol used to identify the Head of State. We use it in limited circumstances to convey the official nature of our communications, at the discretion of the Cabinet Office.

Usage rights

The Royal Coat of Arms is not for use on marketing materials or anything that could be viewed as marketing material.

We have permission to use it on new survey materials, providing we follow the same pattern of use that has been applied to Census 2021 and existing Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveys. This also applies to official materials developed in partnership with external organisations.

It can be used on envelopes, questionnaires, and official correspondence. For anything beyond this, we can contact the Cabinet Office to apply for new permission. To request this, email ons.design@ons.gov.uk (opens in a new tab) 

Clear zone

Leave as much space as possible around the symbol when using the Royal Coat of Arms.

We recommend using white space surrounding the symbol that is equivalent to the width of the symbol, at a minimum.

An example showing the use of the width of Coat of Arms to indicate that the surrounding clear space should be the equivalent of the width in every direction.
Royal Coat of Arms clear zone

Positioning

Position in either the top left or right corner of the material to increase its importance.

Example of a portrait A4 letter showing the Royal Coat of Arms in the top-righthand corner and in the top lefthand corner of a landscape envelope
Examples of Royal Coat of Arms positioning

Sizing

There are two sizes we can use for the Royal Coat of Arms.

The simplified version contains fewer details and should be used for sizes up to 20 millimetres or 56 pixels wide. We recommend using this version for size A4 materials.

The large format version should be used for all sizes larger than 20 millimetres.

An example of the simplified Royal Coat of Arms, which contains contains very little detail and no writing on the central banner.
Simplified Royal Coat of Arms symbol
An example of the large size of the Royal Coat of Arms, which contains more details, including Latin text on the central banner.
Large format Royal Coat of Arms symbol
Warning:

The Royal Coat of Arms should never appear smaller than 5 millimetres wide in print or 26 pixels in digital formats

If you have any questions about using the Royal Coat of Arms, email ons.design@ons.gov.uk (opens in a new tab) 

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Let us know how we could improve this page, or share your user research findings. Discuss this page on GitHub (opens in a new tab) 

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