That’s correct, officially the government has never specified the colours for digital format of the red-green national flag of Bangladesh.
The only official specification for the two colours is this:
(a) The green base of the flag will be of Procion Brilliant Green H-2RS 50
parts per 1000.
(b) The red circular part will be of Procion Brilliant Orange H-2RS 60
parts per 1000.
Procion is a brand of fibre reactive dyes. They are still commonly used in tie dye and other textile crafts. Since the patent on the dyes has expired, many manufacturers around the world now make them. Procion is highly compatible with natural fibres, affordable and accessible for small-scale and industrial use and customisable for a wide range of shades. It is great that the Procion specification of the colours of the flag was specified back in the 1972, but the problem is they are still the only official specification out there.
Although Procion dyes excel at uniformly reproducing colours on fabric, they are not suited for digital use. This stems from the fundamental difference between the digital, light-based additive colour model and the physical, pigment-based world of colour. In the physical world, colours are created using pigments, paints, powders, or inks, and their behaviour is entirely different from light. For example, with pigments, the primary colours are red, blue, and yellow (RBY) in art or cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) in printing. Mixing these pigments absorbs light, and combining them all results in black, as they work by subtracting light.
Conversely, in the digital realm, where light is the source of colour, the primary colours are red, green, and blue (RGB). Mixing them all produces white, as they follow an additive model—exactly the opposite of pigments. Since digital devices work with light, not pigments, they rely on the RGB format, where the presence of all colours generates white. This fundamental difference makes translating Procion dye specifications to digital media challenging, as the two systems operate on entirely different principles. If you’re curious, exploring these concepts on the Internet further can deepen your understanding.
If you search in the Internet you will find some digital specifications of the colours of Bangladesh flag floating around. None of them are officially recognised, and none of them are 100% correct, i.e: no matter where you are copying the information from, there will be some discrepancies about the RGB and the Hex values of the red and green.
However, the Pantone equivalent of the official Procion is somewhat uniform in every source that I could come across. I could not find the history of when or who specified the Pantone equivalents for the Procion red green, but everywhere it is specified as
Pantone 342 C for green, and 485 for the red.
Meanwhile, as of 16th December 2024, Wikipedia entry shows these digital equivalent for the red and green as shown in this table, which apparently is quite widely used throughout the digital world as Wikipedia shows up on top of most search results:
| Colour Reference (Wikipedia) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Colour model | Green | Red |
| Procion (official specification) | Brilliant Green H-2RS 50 parts per 1000 | Brilliant Orange H-2RS 60 parts per 1000 |
| Pantone | 342c | 485 |
| CMYK | 89-34-77-24 | 0-96-74-0 |
| Hex | #006A4E | #F42A41 |
| RGB | 0,106,78 | 244,42,65 |
I would consider these two Hex value equivalent mentioned in Wikipedia wrong. Before we go into the reasoning let’s look at them first
Wikipedia specified Hex green is #006A4E
| [I believe this 006A4E is wrong] |
Wikipedia specified Hex red is #F42A41
| [I believe this 006A4E is wrong] |
Does this green look a little odd, and the red too bright than what our typical real flags look like? Because probably they are wrongly specified.
Let’s Compare and Decide
I asked ChatGPT and another popular colour format converter to reproduce the Hex from the commonly available Pantone specs, and it does not match with the one in Wikipedia. Here is how the comparison looks like for Pantone 342 C for green
| ChatGPT Pantone–Hex: #006651 |
| hex-to-rgb.com Pantone–Hex: # 006747 |
| Wikipedia Hex (as of 16th Dec 2024) #006A4E |
Among all three of them, I think the ChatGPT recommended Hex converted from Pantone 342C looks the most accurate.
My suggestion about the hex for the green is: #006651
| #006651 |
Here is how the comparison looks like for Pantone 485 for the red
| ChatGPT and hex-to-rgb.com both Pantone–Hex: #DA291C |
| Wikipedia Hex (as of 16th Dec 2024): #F42A41 |
In common terms Bangladesh’s national flag’s red is said to be the blood red, the Wikipedia Hex looks more like vermilion rather than scarlet, which is highly likely incorrect.
My suggestion about the hex for the red is: #DA291C
| #DA291C |
Since technically it is not possible to pinpoint a conversion of pigment or ink based colour format to a light based colour format, until the specification goes into the National Flag Rule of Bangladesh, it will continue to remain as a matter of debate. However, until then, following my suggestion might help you achieve an almost accurate digital reproduction of the official Procion specifications.
