Serbia’s State Flag has equal red, blue and white horizontal bands and the Small Coat of Arms offset toward the hoist. The plain tricolor is a separate, equally current legal form called the National Flag (Народна застава). This specimen shows the State Flag, not the plain form. Law, Articles 17–19 ↗
Specification
The law sets length:height at 3:2, expressed here as hoist:fly 2:3. Article 18 gives equal-height bands, red uppermost, with the arms shifted from the center toward the hoist by one-seventh of the total length. Article 19 defines the plain National Flag with the same bands and no arms.
Article 12 describes a silver double-headed eagle on a red shield, with golden beaks, tongues and legs, between two golden fleurs-de-lis. Its red breast shield carries a silver cross and four silver firesteels, their edges turned toward the cross’s vertical bar. A golden crown surmounts the main shield. Silver is shown as white in the specimen. The law identifies these devices without assigning a separate popular meaning to each stripe. Legal description ↗
Graphic color standards
Article 6 of the 2010 decree supplies the following values. They are published graphic specifications; the columns should not be treated as interchangeable color conversions or as a certification of dyed fabric.
| Color | Pantone | CMYK | RGB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | 192C | 0 / 90 / 70 / 10 | 198 / 54 / 60 |
| Blue | 280C | 100 / 72 / 0 / 19 | 12 / 64 / 118 |
| Yellow | 123C | 4 / 24 / 95 / 0 | 237 / 185 / 46 |
| Black | Not listed | K100 | 33 / 35 / 30 |
The specimen encodes those RGB triplets as #C6363C, #0C4076, #EDB92E and #21231E; white is #FFFFFF. Article 6 supplies no white numeric value. Its additional dark red applies only to the mantle of the Great Arms, not this flag. No RAL, textile tolerances or physical sample equivalence is asserted. Decree, Article 6 (ZIP containing DOC) ↗
Construction notes
In the government construction sheet, let A be the fly. The hoist is 2A/3 and each band is 2A/9 high. The arms’ vertical axis is A/2 − A/7 = 5A/14 from the hoist. The crown top is A/18 below the upper edge; crown and shield together measure A/2 high, leaving A/9 below. The shield begins at the red-blue boundary, is A/3 high and A/4 wide. Its left edge is 13A/56 from the hoist. These measurements refer to the published drawing, not an assumed bounding-box center.
The SVG frame is 1350 × 900. Its three background paths expose bands at y=0–300, 300–600 and 600–900; the arms group translates to x=482.143, rounding 5A/14. The shield has half-width 168.75, matching A/4 overall. The crown begins around y=75, the shield near y=300, and the arms end around y=750. Small path and stroke offsets remain: the shield path begins at y=301.25 and ends at y=751. Preserve the supplied paths when scaling. Principal geometry and emblem appearance match the official sheet; this simplified Commons rendering is not a certified manufacturing master. Government artwork and construction sheet (ZIP) ↗ · Asset audit →
Usage
Articles 20–24 address state buildings, polling places, mourning at half-mast and ceremonial or international occasions. Aircraft and vessels are subject to separate implementing rules. The square presidential and parliamentary standards are distinct designs. Flag law ↗
The government’s 27 April 2023 clarification permits both State and National Flags at ceremonial occasions when the rules protecting the flag’s dignity are observed. The State Flag should therefore not be described as exclusively reserved for officials. Government clarification ↗
Historical record
On 17 August 2004, Parliament adopted a recommendation introducing the state and national forms. The flag law followed on 11 May 2009. The government decree dated 11 November 2010 established the graphic originals and color standards. These are different milestones: 2010 dates the model shown here, not the first use of the armorial tricolor. The earlier graphic rendition is not interchangeable with this current specimen.
The decree’s final article provides for commencement on the eighth day after gazette publication; the signed date above is not presented as its effective date. The law traces the arms to the 16 June 1882 arms law. No individual designer attribution is made here. 2004 government announcement ↗ · 2009 adoption announcement ↗ · 2010 decree ↗
Source trail
Reviewed 14 September 2026. Serbian legal descriptions are paraphrased in English.
- President of Serbia: national symbols ↗ — constitutional identity and current official forms.
- Government-hosted law (DOC) ↗ — Articles 9, 12 and 17–24; original 2009 text. Official legal register ↗ lists 36/2009 and 10/2023; its consolidated body was not available to this review.
- Government decree archive ↗ — inspected DOC, Articles 4–6 and 9; dated 11 November 2010.
- Government graphic originals archive ↗ — inspected
gotovi jpg u rgb/drzavna zastava/drzavna zastava RS konstrukcija.jpg. - Government: national symbols ↗ — official entry point for the law, decree and artwork.
- Commons: specimen history and public-domain declaration ↗ — revision 30 September 2023; local provenance and checksum →.
