Flag of Paraguay

The current design of the flag of Paraguay was first adopted in 1842. Its design, a red–white–blue triband, was inspired by the colours of the French Tricolour, believed to signify independence and liberty. The flag is unusual because it Flags whose [reverse differs from the obverse|differs on its obverse and reverse sides]: the obverse of the flag shows the national coat of arms, and the reverse shows the seal of the treasury. It is the only national flag worldwide that has a unique design on each side. The flag consists of the same three horizontal colours as the flag of the Netherlands, which in turn was the inspiration for the French flag. It was revised in 2013 to bring the flag towards its original design. It has a ratio of 11:20.
Prior to the current design, the country used two other designs: a similar one with no seal where the white stripe was slightly larger than the other two, and a different simple design featuring a blue field and a six-pointed white star in the upper-left corner.

Symbolism and design

Officially adopted in 1842, each side of this tricolour flag contains a horizontal tricolor of red, white and blue with the national emblem centered on the white band. The colours of the flag are believed to be inspired from the flag of France to show independence and liberty, and the coat of arms represents the independence of Paraguay.

The emblem on the obverse side is the national coat of arms of Paraguay: a yellow five-pointed star surrounded by a green wreath of palm and olive leaves tied with ribbons of the colour of the stripes, and capped by the words REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY.
The emblem on the reverse side is the seal of the treasury: a yellow lion below a red Phrygian cap on the top of a pole and the words Paz y Justicia.

The differences in the obverse and reverse sides comes from the period when José de Francia was in power.

Colors

The 2013 statute that defines the flag does not specify colors for the red and blue stripes, merely stating, "The red colour, as well as the blue colour, shall be kept as so-called 'primary colours,' that is, without admixture with other colours."
Colors here are from SeekFlag, but others specifications have been used.

	Red	White	Blue
RGB	213-43-30	255-255-255	0-56-168
Hexadecimal	#d52b1e	#FFFFFF	#0038a8
CMYK	0, 80, 86, 16	0, 0, 0, 0	100, 67, 0, 34

Colors of the Coat of Arms are specified in the Appendix of Decree No. 11,400.

	Pantone	RGB	HEX	CMYK
Red	PMS 485 C	237, 28, 36	#ED1C24	0, 100, 100, 0
Yellow	PMS Yellow C	255, 241, 8	#FFF108	0, 0, 100, 0
Green	PMS 355C	0, 166, 81	#00A651	100, 10, 100, 0
Brown	PMS 478C	136, 83,33	#885321	40, 65, 100, 0
Khaki	PMS 4505C	178, 163, 54	#B2A336	35, 30, 100, 0
Black	PMS Black C	0, 0, 0	#000000	0, 0, 0, 100

Historical flags

2013 redesign of the coat of arms

On July 15, 2013, the Coat of Arms of Paraguay, and consequently the Paraguayan flag, were redesigned. The coat of arms was simplified and the design was brought closer to its original form: the inscription “República del Paraguay”, which was yellow with a red background, became black with a colorless background. In addition, the blue circle surrounding the yellow star disappeared.