If you're on Windows (where Microsoft famously chose they would not get involved with flags and show country codes instead), execute this in dev tools or save it as a javascript bookmarklet to make the emoji flags show up:

    javascript:(function(){if(!document.getElementById('twemoji-styles')){const s=document.createElement('style');s.id='twemoji-styles';s.textContent='img.emoji{height:1em!important;width:1em!important;margin:0 .05em 0 .1em!important;vertical-align:-0.1em!important;display:inline!important;}';document.head.appendChild(s)}const r=()=>{const o={folder:'svg',ext:'.svg'};twemoji.parse(document.body,o);if(!window.__twemojiObserver){let t;const ob=new MutationObserver(()=>{clearTimeout(t);t=setTimeout(()=>{ob.disconnect();twemoji.parse(document.body,o);ob.observe(document.body,{childList:true,subtree:true});},300);});ob.observe(document.body,{childList:true,subtree:true});window.__twemojiObserver=ob;}};if(window.twemoji){r();}else{const sc=document.createElement('script');sc.src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@twemoji/api@latest/dist/twemoji.min.js';sc.crossOrigin='anonymous';sc.onload=r;document.head.appendChild(sc);}})();

This cool as an encoder, but to me, the most interesting aspect is the generating part near the end of the article. I can see me using that for a game or for avatars.

Cool idea. The author's AI failed to encode flags for approximately 35% of the world's population. Approximately 3 billion people. At least that's why my AI tells me. India obviously contributes a lot to this. I'm probably salty because my own country's simple (?) flag is also in the "unencodable" group. Lol.

I applaud the author holding aspect ratio as a priority to encode. It's jarring to see an otherwise correct and familiar flag stretched into an incorrect shape when flown or shown.

Nice work! I wonder if you could (or did?) choose a more median shade for each color, especially blue? It seems, going by the comparison page, that most flags actually call for a less royal, more sky shade of blue, so you could use the median (on a linear RGB scale, or XYZ) shade instead as the designated representative for that color?

I noticed Rwanda seems to have the wrong aspect ratio, though you are able to encode that arbitrarily, no?

I thought a flag is 1 bit

With all the attention on the link between compression and intelligence lately it is neat to have this example of how creating a encoding scheme naturally allows you to create new (likely) never before seen flags.

Cool idea. Interesting that Indonesia, Poland and Monaco with very similar two-stripe designs have different compression rates (11, 14 and 17 respectively). Probably the aspect ratio that also gets encoded.

I thought it was meant ironically because a flag (in software) is just one bit.

Cool project and results! https://vantezzen.github.io/miniflags/

Fun fact: Constitution of Nepal has chapter about format of The Flag and it reads as geometry textbook problem (starred one, for advanced students).