New flag rules

[Nouveau Quebecois]

I’m overall happy with these changes. However, I’ve noticed that nation flags now cover up a large chunk of the nation’s banner space. Is there anything that could be done to offset that? Perhaps moving the flag down a bit depending on size?

Got any examples?

Can we move the flag down on the page so that it doesn't obstruct the banner?

[Trotterdam]

They still show up larger for me..

No, it definitely are showing smaller again, at least on my display.

It looks like a theme thing. Right now for me, they're shrunken on Century and Rift but not Antiquity.

[Tinhampton]

Automatic Flag Resizing

Your flag will usually be resized to fit within 428x284 pixels... If it's under 150kB and the image fits within either 535x355 pixels or 321x568 pixels, it won't be resized... Animated GIFs are possible if the filesize is under 150kB and the image fits within 321x213 pixels.

Is this a bug?

It is when an image is too big for the layout, e.g. it squishes the text too much.

Not only is NationStates resizing superlarge static flags, but it is resizing them even smaller than it would a GIF. The flag I have uploaded as of a few minutes ago is of dimensions 534x330, is below the 150kb limit, and NationStates indeed recognises it as having dimensions of 534x330 pixels when I C'n'P its location on NS into my address bar. Why, then, does it appear to have the dimensions of 317x196 - rather than, as I would expect, 428x264 or 321x198 - on my nation page as well as when changing my settings (on Firefox 72.0.1 and Win10)?

While [violet] insisted yesterday (above) that images will only be resized if they are "too big for the layout, e.g. [they squish] the text too much," my flag is still 317x196 even after changing my pretitle to "QWERTY," which leaves my full nation name on one line. I suspect that flags are now capped at a maximum display height - not a real maximum - of 196 pixels; those of Gandoor (who was the first to complain about flag resizing in this thread, although hers was slightly larger than it is now) and Xoriet/Arian of Abyss (who [v] was responding to in the second quote in this post) certainly appear to display on my end with flag heights of 196px. Even older flags such as that of Christian Democrats, which was uploaded long prior to the new flag rules, are being subjected to this cap. I will happily provide screenshotted proof of the new 196px-tall flags if needs be, if the links to the nation pages in this paragraph suffice not.

For future reference, I can corroborate what Trotterdam says about superlarge flags only appearing on Antiquity, hence my use of "maximum display height" above.

[[violet]]

I'm still messing around with it, but here are the different concepts in play.

When you upload a custom flag, it's resized according to the rules above to fit within a set height, width, and filesize.

In ye olden days, that was the end of the story, because your image was a file that would always display at that size, no matter what.

Today, however, we have people using a much broader range of screens, some very small, some very large, and with different pixel densities. So whereas it used to be fairly safe to assume roughly how much of a screen a 300x200 pixel image would occupy, this is no longer the case.

Thus how the flag looks can also depend on:

• the width of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much horizontal screen real estate (currently: 25%)
• the height of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much vertical screen real estate (currently: 30%)
• the pixel density of your screen: phones and tablets in particular can display a higher-quality image from the same nominal amount of pixels, which makes it useful to allow flag images to be larger than the displayed size
• whether you are using a NationStates theme that supports the above

[[violet]]

Got any examples?

Can we move the flag down on the page so that it doesn't obstruct the banner?

Example? There's a very wide range of flag dimensions and screen sizes; I can't guess which combination you're looking at.

That said, the positioning of flags vs banners is indeed based on the old logic that images would all be about the same dimensions, and the nation page layout needs to be modernized.

[Boda]

Flags cutting off huge sections of banners is nothing new and not specific. Pretty much any flag that’s not resized can overlap with the banner a little, or alot.

[Gandoor]

I'm still messing around with it, but here are the different concepts in play.

When you upload a custom flag, it's resized according to the rules above to fit within a set height, width, and filesize.

In ye olden days, that was the end of the story, because your image was a file that would always display at that size, no matter what.

Today, however, we have people using a much broader range of screens, some very small, some very large, and with different pixel densities. So whereas it used to be fairly safe to assume roughly how much of a screen a 300x200 pixel image would occupy, this is no longer the case.

Thus how the flag looks can also depend on:

• the width of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much horizontal screen real estate (currently: 25%)
• the height of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much vertical screen real estate (currently: 30%)
• the pixel density of your screen: phones and tablets in particular can display a higher-quality image from the same nominal amount of pixels, which makes it useful to allow flag images to be larger than the displayed size
• whether you are using a NationStates theme that supports the above

I guess that makes sense but IDK I guess I'm just disappointed that I can upload a bigger flag but I can't actually see it because it scales based on my screen size and pixel density.

Again this might just be me, but that feels like it defeats the point, I uploaded a larger flag so I could have a larger flag on my page, not have it displayed smaller than under the previous max size limit.

[Verdant Haven]

Thank you for this update. Ran in to it quite by mistake while re-uploading the Forest flag today, and being pleasantly surprised by how large it was. Definitely an appreciated change!

[Almonaster Nuevo]

Me likey. Thanks [v].

[Nakena]

I love the new flag rules. A very nice innovation.

[D055]

I'm very fond of the new flag rules too, especially the GIF rules.

[Recuecn]

Have the rules changed again? My flag used to be really huge and now gets resized like it used to, but with the difference that now it keeps its transparency even when being resized. Am I just going crazy?

Also, I'm still wondering what the new specifics for regional flags are.

[Gandoor]

Have the rules changed again? My flag used to be really huge and now gets resized like it used to, but with the difference that now it keeps its transparency even when being resized. Am I just going crazy?

Also, I'm still wondering what the new specifics for regional flags are.

From earlier on this very page:

I'm still messing around with it, but here are the different concepts in play.

When you upload a custom flag, it's resized according to the rules above to fit within a set height, width, and filesize.

In ye olden days, that was the end of the story, because your image was a file that would always display at that size, no matter what.

Today, however, we have people using a much broader range of screens, some very small, some very large, and with different pixel densities. So whereas it used to be fairly safe to assume roughly how much of a screen a 300x200 pixel image would occupy, this is no longer the case.

Thus how the flag looks can also depend on:

• the width of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much horizontal screen real estate (currently: 25%)
• the height of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much vertical screen real estate (currently: 30%)
• the pixel density of your screen: phones and tablets in particular can display a higher-quality image from the same nominal amount of pixels, which makes it useful to allow flag images to be larger than the displayed size
• whether you are using a NationStates theme that supports the above

The tl;dr: The flag is still the size that you originally uploaded it as (which can be seen if you right-click and view your flag image by itself in a new tab and check your display) but it now gets resized on your computer display based on your browser's height and width and pixel density of whatever you're using to view NS instead of just displayed as whatever the image res is.

[Recuecn]

Have the rules changed again? My flag used to be really huge and now gets resized like it used to, but with the difference that now it keeps its transparency even when being resized. Am I just going crazy?

Also, I'm still wondering what the new specifics for regional flags are.

From earlier on this very page:

I'm still messing around with it, but here are the different concepts in play.

When you upload a custom flag, it's resized according to the rules above to fit within a set height, width, and filesize.

In ye olden days, that was the end of the story, because your image was a file that would always display at that size, no matter what.

Today, however, we have people using a much broader range of screens, some very small, some very large, and with different pixel densities. So whereas it used to be fairly safe to assume roughly how much of a screen a 300x200 pixel image would occupy, this is no longer the case.

Thus how the flag looks can also depend on:

• the width of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much horizontal screen real estate (currently: 25%)
• the height of your browser: flags aren't permitted to take up too much vertical screen real estate (currently: 30%)
• the pixel density of your screen: phones and tablets in particular can display a higher-quality image from the same nominal amount of pixels, which makes it useful to allow flag images to be larger than the displayed size
• whether you are using a NationStates theme that supports the above

The tl;dr: The flag is still the size that you originally uploaded it as (which can be seen if you right-click and view your flag image by itself in a new tab and check your display) but it now gets resized on your computer display based on your browser's height and width and pixel density of whatever you're using to view NS instead of just displayed as whatever the image res is.

Ok, sure, I'd seen that comment. I didn't realize it meant that resizing no longer removes any transparency in the flag. I was thinking that there was a difference between the game resizing the file itself and simply displaying it at a different size depending on the size or proportions of the browser window. Are those in fact the same thing?

I'm also still curious about what exact dimensions are ok, both for national and regional flags. The comments about browser display only mention percentages of screen real estate, which doesn't match up with current help text which mentions pixels and file sizes (confirming, as far as I can tell, my understanding that resizing the file is a different thing than resizing its display).

Maybe I'm wrong and my monitor's pixel density is getting put to use now which is why my flag got smaller again--but either way the text when uploading flags is wrong, yeah? Either it is about pixels and file sizes, in which case it's saying the wrong ones, or it's not, in which case it's still weird to me that the text would be about a different set of requirements than the ones in use.

[Tessen]

Can we get some final clarification on dimensions for national and regional flags under these new rules. I don't believe the repeated requests for regional flag clarification has been addressed yet.

[N7eternia]

This is amazing news for me. I'll be in an updating frenzy.

[Recuecn]

Since this has already been bumped for me, I'll jump back on here--I'm still wondering about what the size requirements are for regional flags--the game says all regional flags are resized to 150 x 100 pixels, but that's not actually true.