At One Place

The flag of Chad

The flag of Chad
Three equal vertical bands of indigo blue at the hoist, gold and red.
Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 1959
Chad

Chad and Romania have flags that differ only in the shade of the hoist band, and by nothing else at all — same three colours, same order, same 2:3 ratio, no emblem on either. Chad chose the design in 1959 from the French tricolour combined with pan-African colours, replacing an original green band with blue precisely to avoid clashing with Mali. Romania has flown its plain tricolour since 1989 and a version with arms long before that, so both countries have a fair claim to priority. In 2004 Chad asked the United Nations to look into the duplication; Romania's president replied that his country would not change, and nothing further happened.

Flags it gets confused with

Chad
Romania

Drawn at each flag’s own official ratio, which is itself the difference in some of these pairs.

Flag How to tell them apart
Romania Only the blue. Chad's is a dark indigo (#002664); Romania's is a brighter cobalt (#002B7F). At a distance, or on a screen, they are indistinguishable.
Moldova and Andorra Same three colours, but both carry a coat of arms on the yellow band.

What the colours mean

  • Blue #002664 The sky, hope and water — a dark indigo, not a cobalt
  • Gold #FECB00 The sun and the desert of the north
  • Red #C60C30 Progress, unity and sacrifice

Flag laws usually specify a Pantone chip, a CMYK mix or just a colour name. Converting any of those to sRGB is lossy, which is why published hex values disagree.

Ratio
2:3
Current design adopted
1959
Colours
blue, gold, red

Common questions

What does the flag of Chad look like?
Three equal vertical bands of indigo blue at the hoist, gold and red.
What do the colours of the Chad flag mean?
Blue: the sky, hope and water — a dark indigo, not a cobalt. Gold: the sun and the desert of the north. Red: progress, unity and sacrifice.
How do you tell the Chad flag from the Romania one?
Only the blue. Chad's is a dark indigo (#002664); Romania's is a brighter cobalt (#002B7F). At a distance, or on a screen, they are indistinguishable.
When was the Chad flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1959, and its official ratio is 2:3.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)

How these figures are compiled and checked