GoKawiilDeveloper designs 11-bit encoding scheme to represent national flags
Inspired by a YouTube video explaining matrix operations using flags, a developer built a compact encoding system that stores country flags in as little as 11 bits by breaking them into stripes, colors, and simple shared elements like stars or crosses. The system deliberately excludes coats of arms, state or city flags, and Nepal's non-rectangular flag to keep the encoding tractable, accepting that decoded flags will be recognizable but not pixel-perfect.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The project is a playful demonstration of how far data compression can go when you're willing to sacrifice precision for recognizability, distilling complex visual designs down to their essential distinguishing features. It also illustrates a broader lesson in encoding design: defining strict acceptance criteria and scope limits upfront makes an otherwise open-ended creative problem solvable.
- A custom scheme encodes national flags using variable-length bit strings rather than fixed sizes.
- The approach prioritizes visual recognizability over exact color or shape accuracy.
- Coats of arms, non-country flags, and Nepal's unique shape are excluded to simplify the encoding.
Source: read.vantezzen.io, 2026-09-12
Published there as: “Compressing a Flag to 11 Bits”
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