Flag Generator

The five flag layouts in the flag generator

Horizontal and vertical stripes split the canvas into 1 to 10 equal bands, each with its own color picker. Diagonal splits the canvas corner to corner into two triangles, and quadrants divides it into four equal rectangles, each colored on its own.

The Nordic cross draws a background plus a horizontal and a vertical bar, with the vertical bar centred at 30% of the width. That shifts the cross towards the hoist, the pole side, as on Nordic cross flags such as Norway's and Sweden's. The bars are fixed at 15% of the width and 20% of the height, so they do not match the exact proportions of any real national flag.

How to design a flag: a worked example

A flag for a fictional island in a story, with a Nordic cross and a circle that both survive the SVG download:

1. Type 600 into Width and leave the aspect ratio on 3:2.
2. Choose Nordic Cross under Pattern Type. The flag redraws at 600 by 400 pixels in the starting colors, red with a white cross.
3. Set the Background to a dark green and the Cross to yellow with the color pickers below the flag.
4. Choose Circle under Symbol, leave its color on white and drag the size slider down until the circle fits inside the horizontal bar.
5. Press Download as SVG for a file that scales to any size, or Download as PNG for a picture of exactly what you see.

The order matters: changing the pattern or pressing Generate Flag puts the colors back to the starting set, so choose the colors last. A new width or number of stripes takes effect when you press Generate Flag or change the pattern.

Adding a symbol and choosing colors

The optional symbol (star, circle, triangle or diamond) sits in the centre of the flag, on top of whatever layout is beneath it. Its color and size are separate controls, so a black diamond over a striped background is one click away.

Each stripe or area has its own color picker. To start from a color you did not choose yourself, copy a HEX code from the random color generator into a picker.

PNG or SVG: downloading your flag

PNG export saves exactly what is on the canvas as a picture. SVG export is more limited: it rebuilds horizontal stripes, vertical stripes and the Nordic cross as vector shapes, plus a circle symbol.

The SVG file leaves out diagonal and quadrant layouts and the star, triangle and diamond symbols. For those designs, download the PNG at the width you need; the form suggests up to 800 pixels.

Ideas for using the flag generator

Mock up a flag for a class project on vexillology, a sports-team banner or a slide. For a fictional nation in a story or a game, name it with the place name generator, crown a ruler with the royal name generator, or give it a home world with the planet generator.