At One Place

The flag of Switzerland

The flag of Switzerland
A square red field with a bold equilateral white cross at the centre that does not reach the edges.
Ratio 1:1 · current design adopted 1889
Switzerland

It is one of only two square national flags, along with the Vatican's, and the squareness is the part people get wrong: the rectangular version everyone has seen is the Swiss maritime ensign at 2:3, legal only at sea. The cross arms are one-sixth longer than they are wide, a proportion fixed by federal resolution in 1889 and restated in the 2017 coat of arms act. The Red Cross emblem is this flag with the colours reversed, adopted in 1863 as an honour to Switzerland, which is why the two are so often mistaken for each other. Switzerland also lacks an official hex value; the government's design manual specifies Pantone 485.

Flags it gets confused with

Switzerland
Denmark

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

Flag How to tell them apart
Denmark Denmark's cross is offset toward the hoist and reaches all four edges; Switzerland's is centred and floats.
The Red Cross emblem Same shape, inverted colours — a red cross on white. It is not a flag of any country.

What the colours mean

  • Red #FF0000 The field; the colour has no assigned meaning in Swiss law
  • White #FFFFFF The cross, a Christian emblem carried by Swiss troops from the 14th century

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
1:1
Current design adopted
1889
Colours
red, white

The federal specification names Pantone 485. #FF0000 is the value in the Confederation's own web design manual; #DA291C and #D52B1E are the commonest print conversions and look noticeably darker.

Common questions

What does the flag of Switzerland look like?
A square red field with a bold equilateral white cross at the centre that does not reach the edges.
What do the colours of the Switzerland flag mean?
Red: the field; the colour has no assigned meaning in Swiss law. White: the cross, a Christian emblem carried by Swiss troops from the 14th century.
How do you tell the Switzerland flag from the Denmark one?
Denmark's cross is offset toward the hoist and reaches all four edges; Switzerland's is centred and floats.
When was the Switzerland flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1889, and its official ratio is 1:1.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place

How these figures are compiled and checked