# The French Flag's Appearance?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 31, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862 "2006-08-31T02:08:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862/1 "2006-08-31T02:08:08Z")

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I have a book on illusions which claims the three vertical stripes comprising the French flag are not of equal width. This is because the brighter colors looks wider than than the darker colors. (An illusion caused by the both the orientation of the cones and rods in our eyes and their sensitivies to brightnesses.)

While the illusion is well known, such as wearing darker colors to look slimmer. But for the French flag, is this true? Gosh! If so, it sure fooled me! - Jinx

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862/2 "2006-08-31T02:15:59Z")

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Aw, Dang in a handbasket!!! :smack: :smack: :smack:

I haven’t made this mistake in quite awhile. I’ve hijacked my own thread! (It’s a Freudian flashback to how the Boards once operated for a short period, and I still fall back into this mode subconsciously!) :rolleyes:

Aw, nuts! :smack: :smack: :smack:

- Jinx

But, if I ran the SD… 🆒

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**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862/3 "2006-08-31T02:43:35Z")

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The [Wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_flag) says a bit about this. Don’t know how reliable it is.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862/4 "2006-08-31T03:02:57Z")

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[Flags of The World](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr.html#ens) seems to agree:

> [@](#):
>
> The proportions of vertical stripes on the French flag when used at sea as the civil or naval ensign or jack are 30:33:37, to give a good visual effect when flying, and therefore called optical proportions.  
> – Zeljko Heimer, 23 September 1995

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862/5 "2006-08-31T12:03:48Z")

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Xash, thanks for fixing my mispost! The SD Board is finally getting smart! There is a time to post, and a time to edit! 😃

- Jinx

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-flags-appearance/370862/6 "2006-08-31T13:29:56Z")

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[QUOTE=Derleth]  
[Flags of The World](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr.html#ens) seems to agree:  
[/QUOTE]

That is the naval ensign, not the flag officially flown in most circumstances, and is the only version of the flag that looks like that. The official flag of France flown on land has three equally wide stripes; the assymmetric flag was done away with for most purposes when Napoleon was still around.