Look-alikes · Sri Lanka · São Tomé and Príncipe
Sri Lanka vs São Tomé and Príncipe
Two copies of one picture are 0% apart and the widest pair in the world is 100%.
Sri Lanka and São Tomé and Príncipe are 36% apart. They are closer than 98% of the flag pairs in the world.
Where the difference is
Each colour on Sri Lanka, matched with the nearest colour on São Tomé and Príncipe, and how far apart the two are, the number is the worst single tile, out of 255.
- #ffbe29#ffd10041
- #8d153a#ef334098
- #eb7400#009739235
- #00534e#00000083
The colour that separates them is orange against green: #eb7400 against #009739, 235 apart.
How they are put together
Nothing about how they are built was measured the same on both.
Only Sri Lanka: a border. Only São Tomé and Príncipe: horizontal bands, a triangle at the pole.
What each one carries
Sri Lanka carries a lion, a leaf, and a sword. São Tomé and Príncipe carries a star.
How the number was arrived at
Both flags are drawn at 64×48 and cut into squares 8 across. Each square is averaged to one colour, and the score is the worst single square, so two flags that agree everywhere except one corner are as far apart as that corner, which is the right answer to a question about whether anybody could tell them apart. 0 is the same picture; the number is the worst single tile, out of 255.
On that scale Sri Lanka and São Tomé and Príncipe score 92.4 out of 255, which is the 36% above.
It cannot see everything. Both flags are stretched to the same box, so Indonesia and Monaco, which differ in nothing else, are measured as their reds rather than as identical. The look-alikes page sets out the rest.
Also close
The flags the pipeline measured nearest to these two.