About Flag Finder
Flag Finder solves one specific problem: you can picture a flag but cannot name the country. Instead of asking for a name, it asks for the colours, emblem and layout you remember, then narrows 196 flags down to a shortlist.
How the tool works
Every flag in the collection is tagged with its dominant colours from a fixed list (red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, orange), one symbol category (star, crescent, cross, sun, circle, triangle or none) and one layout category (horizontal stripes, vertical stripes, centre symbol or corner symbol). Simple flags carry two or three colour tags; the most complex, such as South Africa, carry six.
Colour selections are combined with AND: picking red and white returns only flags tagged with both. Symbol and layout are single choices. The name box filters as you type and can be combined with the other filters.
The tagging is a deliberate simplification. A flag with a detailed coat of arms may contain many more colours than are tagged; only the dominant ones are recorded, because those are the ones people remember. This is the main reason a search can miss a flag you expected.
Editorial method
Every one of the 196 pages describes what is actually visible in the flag shown on it: band order, and the shape and position of any emblem, star counts, and the detail that separates the flag from the ones it is mixed up with.
196 pages currently list sources for researched design or background notes. Of those, 194 include documented meaning, interpretation or design history. The remaining pages focus on identifying what is visible in the displayed flag.
Official meanings are kept separate from popular interpretations. Dates distinguish first use, formal adoption and later legislation where those are different. A source list appears only where its references support the notes on that page.
There are 5 comparison guides covering the flag groups that are mixed up most often. Their differentiators are drawn from observable design features and official construction specifications, not from colour symbolism.
Sources are listed on the pages that have them and include government and official-body publications alongside Flags of the World (FOTW), a long-running vexillological reference. Flag images are served by flagcdn.com.
Scope
- Disputed territories and contested flags are described neutrally, with the design shown on the page identified where context is needed.
- The directory focuses on current national flags rather than subnational, historical, military or organisational flags.
- Colour symbolism is attributed carefully. Meanings not documented by an official source are labelled as common interpretations.
Corrections
Flags change, and descriptions of them age. Where a page here disagrees with an official source, the official source is right and the page should be corrected.
Send corrections to itayg3131@gmail.com or use the contact page.