Some flags only look correct when they are viewed from one perspective. The USA flag is an example of that. If it’s upside down or viewed from the backside it looks incorrect. But not all flags are like this. Some look proper when viewed from the backside. Some are correct even when upside down. And some are correct even if they are upside down and viewed from the backside. Is there a term to designate those types of flags which can be viewed correctly from multiple perspectives?
For example, take a look at this picture Flags. The flag for France would be correct even if it was upside down but not when viewed from the backside. Germany would be correct when viewed from the backside but not if it was upside down. The flag for England is correct no matter how you look at it. The flag from Brazil only looks correct from one perspective.
So something like:
USA’s flag is monoperspective
France’s flag is flippable
Germany’s flag is reversable
England’s flag is universal
I’m wondering if there are official names for those types of designations.
I think he knows because he specifically mentioned England and not the UK.
Canada’s flag is also symmetrical on a vertical axis, to mention another prominent one. India’s flag is symmetrical on a vertical axis, since the chakra in the middle has its spokes at 10-degree increments starting from 0 degrees.
Libya’s is not as easy to hang as Switzerland’s, which is vertically and horizontally symmetrical, and rotationally symmetrical through 90° turns since it is square.
Diagonal flips as well, completing all the symettries of the square. The Confederate battle flag was intended to be square, and would also display all possible square symettries with a somewhat more involved design. It was often rendered as a rectangle, however.
Whoops. Excuse me - some of them would screw up the orientation of the individual stars. Alabama’s state flag would qualify, if made square, as it was apparently intended to be.
The Ohio flag almost has horizontal symmetry, but not quite, even though it has a very complex design. The four stars to the right of the O spoil the symmetry, because they would look different upside down. (The other 13 stars are symmetrical).
OTOH, we have Nepal, for which the shape of the flag has no axes of symmetry, not even considering the design on it:
The article claims that it’s the only non-quadrilateral national flag. Offhand, I can’t think of any other flags that have non-symmetric shapes - as observed, the shape of the Ohio state flag is symmetric about the horizontal axis.
… but it does not look the same “from the backside”. It’s a two sided flag - the obverse just has the stripes without the design. There’s a few two-sided flags, including Oregon, which I knew about:
I’m a big flag fan, and I know of no terms specific to vexillology as to the different ways a flag could be displayed and still be correct. There are many flags that can be displayed “upside down” and no one would ever know: Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Botswana and the Bahamas, to start with (not worth looking through any more of the alphabet).
The flag of the Philippines is only flown upside down in wartime, IIRC.
Surely all flags are meant to be viewable from either side. They are meant to be on a pole, flapping in the breeze, and the side anyone sees will depend on both where the observer is and on the wind direction. What is important (in some cases) is which edge of the flag is against the mast. I guess the convention in showing pictures of flags, is to depict them as they would appear with the mast to the left, but pictures are not actual flags. If you see an American flag flying with the field of stars against the mast but on the right, then what you see is not incorrect.
The poster child for hanging versatility is surely the Japanese flag. White background with red circle in the middle. It’d be pretty hard to hang that one incorrectly.
Rather than viewing it from the backside, a better way to look at vertical symmetry might be that if the flag has it, you could attach the halyard to either side of the flag, and it would still be correct. “Meant to be viewable from either side” may be the reason there aren’t that many two sided flags. But there are some, such as Oregon’s.
