Netherlands bottom band

Why this color matters

The Dutch flag is easy to store as “red, white, blue” and surprisingly hard to reconstruct. Memory usually borrows a navy from France or the United States, or jumps toward Luxembourg's pale sky blue. The bottom band is neither: Toon Tone scores a medium-dark, cyan-leaning blue at #21468B.

The stripe beneath the dispute

The first recorded Dutch flag, in 1572, was the orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag, tied to William of Orange and the revolt against Spain. Red gradually displaced orange during the 17th century, producing the red-white-blue form often called the States Flag. The neat story that orange simply proved hard to see at sea remains just that: the Royal House itself introduces it as “the story goes.” What did not move was blue's place beneath the argument, although a 16th-century blue was not a modern calibrated cobalt.

The colours of the flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are red, white and blue.

Royal Decree No. 93, 19 February 1937

The decree named colours, not shades

A Batavian resolution of 14 February 1796 had already specified red, white and blue in three equal horizontal bands, but after independence returned in 1813 both the red and orange versions remained in circulation. The 1937 decree settled the basic colour question in one sentence. It did not specify vermilion, cobalt, dimensions, Pantone, CIE, RGB or hex; the present Dutch Constitution still contains no flag article.

A textile standard, not a screen code

NEN 3055:1958, published on 1 November 1958, standardized the red and blue of Dutch flag textiles. It was a four-page material-colour standard, not a web palette; NEN lists it as withdrawn on 13 April 2026. The current Dutch Defence ceremonial handbook instead names cobalt blue as Pantone 2738 C / RAL 5013. None of those sources publishes #21468B.

The exact screen blue

The Toon Tone target is #21468B: RGB 33/70/139, HSB 219°/76%/55%. Pure blue is 240°, so 219° moves about 21° toward cyan rather than violet. Saturation is strong but not complete, and 55% brightness keeps it medium-dark. The green channel at 70 lifts perceived lightness without raising HSB value; remember that distinction, or the flag drifts into electric blue when you try to escape navy.