So, what colour the *is* the Dutch flag?
I thought it would be a simple Google search…
While working on The National Algorithm I needed to pull up RGB values for the colours of the Dutch flag. No biggie, just Google “kleuren nederlandse vlag” and pull up the top link. Boom, done! Or… wait, that isn’t the same hex value as what I just saw in the search results? I clicked the back button…
A few minutes later I had a whole stream of browser tabs open. By the end of the day both the Ministry of General Affairs and the NEN (the national standards body) were involved. Nobody, it seems, has a clear answer.
My initial query with overheid.nl (the Dutch government information site), got me a stock answer from the Ministry of the General Affairs. “The colours of the Dutch flag are Vermillion, White and Blue”. Great, but it doesn’t tell me the actual colour values. On further inquiry I was referred to NEN.
NEN gave me pretty much the same answer, and informed me that I was welcome to purchase the standard from their web shop. I had done some research of my own in the meantime, and am here today to notify my fellow citizens of the Netherlands that you need do no such thing. The standards for both the colours of the flag and the accompanying orange banner were released to the public for free in honour of veteran’s day in 2013.
NEN 3055 — Rood en Blauw (.pdf)
NEN 3203 — Oranje (.pdf)
So which of the wikipedia pages referenced above is correct? You will be shocked and amazed to find out that in fine wikipedia fashion, while both are partially correct, they have also both fallen prey to the hazards of repeated colour conversions and as a consequence, both are wrong.
The standards date from 1958, and as such the colours are only described in CIE colourspace, which predates digital displays and the colourspaces we are now accustomed to using. Somehow while the Dutch wikipedia has the correct chromatic values, it’s hex values are incorrect. The English version in turn appears to be based on correct conversions of the RGB values, but the translation back to chromatic values appears to have somehow gone wrong.
For the record, the correct chromatic values as per the standard are:
Red (Bright Vermillion): X 18.3 — Y 10.0 — Z 3.0
Blue: (Cobalt Blue): X 7.5— Y 6.6 — Z 25.3
Converted using standard light ‘C’ under an angle of 45° gives us:
Red (Bright Vermillion): #AE1C28, rgb(173,28,40)
Blue: (Cobalt Blue): #21468B, rgb(33,70,139)
At the time I was figuring this out there was some chatter between the twitter accounts of Rijksoverheid and NEN suggesting that something in the form of an official guidance for digital colours of the flag may come about, but I’ve not heard from either since. An attempt to update wikipedia with the correct values will follow, I’ll let you know how it goes…
This interesting little problem turned up as part of the research for The National Algorithm, a project researching camouflage and identity. For more information:
Introducing The National Algorithm
www.thenationalalgorithm.com
@nation_algo on Twitter.
