At One Place

The flag of Poland

The flag of Poland
Two equal horizontal bands, white over red.
Ratio 5:8 · current design adopted 1919
Poland

The flag is a heraldic banner rather than a design: white for the eagle and red for its field, which is why the white must be on top — the charge always sits above its field. Flying it the other way up produces Indonesia's flag, and Polish law treats the inversion as a defacement of the national symbol. The red is legally specified in CIE tristimulus coordinates rather than a Pantone chip, which is unusually precise and still produces two visibly different reds in the wild. The state flag adds the crowned eagle to the white band and may only be used by government bodies and abroad.

Flags it gets confused with

Poland
Indonesia
Monaco

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

Flag How to tell them apart
Indonesia Indonesia is red over white — Poland inverted.
Monaco Also red over white, and nearly square at 4:5.

What the colours mean

  • White #FFFFFF The white eagle of the Polish coat of arms
  • Red #DC143C The red field the eagle stands on

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
5:8
Current design adopted
1919
Colours
white, red

Common questions

What does the flag of Poland look like?
Two equal horizontal bands, white over red.
What do the colours of the Poland flag mean?
White: the white eagle of the Polish coat of arms. Red: the red field the eagle stands on.
How do you tell the Poland flag from the Indonesia one?
Indonesia is red over white — Poland inverted.
When was the Poland flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1919, and its official ratio is 5:8.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Official vendor product documentation — At One Place

How these figures are compiled and checked