A laundry symbol, also called a care symbol, is a

pictogram A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

indicating the manufacturer's suggestions as to methods of

washing Washing is a method of cleaning, usually with water and soap or detergent. Regularly washing and then rinsing both body and clothing is an essential part of good hygiene and health. Often people use soaps and detergents to assist in the emulsific ...

, drying, dry-cleaning and

ironing Ironing is the use of an iron (appliance), iron, usually heated, to remove wrinkles and unwanted creases from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of , depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the lon ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

. Such symbols are written on labels, known as care labels or care tags, attached to clothing to indicate how a particular item should best be cleaned. While there are internationally recognized standards for the care labels and pictograms, their exact use and form differ by region. In some standards, pictograms coexist with or are complemented by written instructions.

Standards

GINETEX, the France-based European association for textile care labelling, was formed in 1963 in part to define international standards for the care and labelling of textiles. By the early 1970s, GINETEX was working with

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

to develop international standards for textile labelling, eventually leading to the ISO 3758 standard, ''Textiles – Care labelling code using symbols''. ISO 3758 was supplemented in 1993, revised in 2005 and again in 2012 and 2023 with reviews of the standard held on a five-year cycle. In March 1970, the Canadian Government Specifications Board published 86-GP-1, ''Standard for Care Labelling of Textiles'', which promoted a symbol-based textile care labelling system in which symbols were colored: green indicated "no precautions are necessary", yellow indicated "some caution is necessary", and red indicated "prohibited". Publication 86-GP-1 was revised several times over the following three decades; the most noteworthy change was in 1979, when temperatures changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius, and any additional instructions were to be added in text, in both English and French. In 2003, the system was withdrawn in favor of a black-and-white symbol-based system harmonized with North American and international standards. The inclusion of care symbols on garments made or sold in Canada has always been voluntary; only fabric content labels are mandatory (since 1972). In 1996, in the United States,

ASTM International ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is a standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical international standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and s ...

published a system of pictorial care instructions as D5489 ''Standard Guide for Care Symbols for Care Instructions on Textile Products,'' with revisions in 1998, 2001, 2007, 2014, and 2018. American Cleaning institute developed and published their guide to fabric care symbols. Additional textile care labelling systems have been developed for Australia, China, and Japan. Worldwide, all of these systems tend to use similar pictograms or labelling to convey laundry care instructions. , the pictograms are not encoded in

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

standards, because these symbols are not in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

across various countries, and are

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

ed.

Pictograms

General

The care label describes the allowable treatment of the garment without damaging the textile. Whether this treatment is necessary or sufficient, is not stated. A milder than specified treatment is always acceptable. The symbols are protected and their use is required to comply with the license conditions; incorrect labelling is prohibited. A bar below each symbol calls for a gentler treatment than usual and a double bar for a very gentle treatment.

Washing

A stylized ''washtub'' is shown, and the number in the tub means the maximum wash temperature (degrees Celsius). A bar under the tub signifies a gentler treatment in the

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a machine designed to laundry, launder clothing. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water. Other ways of doing laundry include dry cleaning (which uses ...

. A double bar signifies very gentle handling. A hand in the tub signifies that only (gentle) hand washing (not above 40 °C) is allowed. A cross through washtub means that the textile may not be washed under normal household conditions. In the North American standard, dots are used to indicate the proper temperature range. In the European standard, the level of wash agitation recommended is indicated by bars below the wash tub symbol. Absence of bar indicates a maximum agitation (cotton wash), a single bar indicates medium agitation (synthetics cycle) and a double bar indicates very minimal agitation (silk/wool cycle). The bar symbols also indicate the level of spin recommended with more bars indicating lower preferred spin speed. File:Waschen.svg, Washing symbol File:Waschen 30.svg, Wash at or below (US, 1 dot, ●) File:Waschen 40.svg, Wash at or below (US, 2 dots, ●●) File:Waschen 50.svg, Wash at or below (US, 3 dots, ●●●) File:Waschen 60.svg, Wash at or below (US, 4 dots, ●●●●) File:Handwäsche.svg, Hand wash File:Nicht waschen.svg, Do not wash

Bleaching

An empty ''triangle'' (formerly lettered Cl) allows the

bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color from (i.e. to whiten) fabric or fiber (in a process called bleaching) or to disinfect after cleaning. It often refers specifically t ...

ing with

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...

or non-chlorine bleach. Two oblique lines in the triangle prohibit chlorine bleaching. A crossed triangle prohibits any bleaching. File:Bleichen.svg, Bleaching symbol (allowed for both chlorine and non-chlorine bleach) File:Bleichen mit chlor.svg, Bleaching with chlorine allowed (obsolete) File:Sauerstoffbleichen.svg, Non-chlorine bleach when needed File:Nicht bleichen v2.svg, Do not bleach File:Nicht bleichen.svg, Do not bleach

Drying

A ''circle in the square'' symbolizes a

clothes dryer A clothes dryer (tumble dryer, drying machine, drying device, or simply dryer) is a powered Home appliance, household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing, bedding and other textiles, usually after they are washed in ...

. One dot requires drying at reduced temperature and two dots for normal temperature. The crossed symbol means that the clothing does not tolerate machine drying. In the US and Japan, there are other icons for natural/line drying.

Tumble drying

File:Trommeltrocknen.svg, Tumble drying symbol File:Trommeltrocknen 1.svg, Tumble drying (low temperature) File:Trommeltrocknen 2.svg, Tumble drying (normal) File:Nicht trommeltrocknen.svg, Do not tumble dry

Natural drying

File:Trocknen.svg, Drying symbol File:Trocknen (leine).svg, Line dry File:Trocknen (liegend).svg, Dry flat File:Trocknen (tropfnass).svg, Drip dry File:Trocknen (schatten).svg, Dry in the shade File:Trocknen (leine im schatten).svg, Line dry in the shade File:Trocknen (liegend im schatten).svg, Dry flat in shade File:Trocknen (tropfnass im schatten).svg, Drip dry in shade

Ironing

The ''iron'' with up to three dots allows for

. The number of dots are assigned temperatures: one prescribes , two for and three for . An iron with a cross prohibits ironing. File:Bügeln.svg, Ironing symbol File:Bügeln 1.svg, Iron at low temperature File:Bügeln 2.svg, Iron at medium temperature File:Bügeln 3.svg, Iron at high temperature File:Nicht bügeln.svg, Do not iron

Professional cleaning

A ''circle'' identifies the possibilities of professional cleaning. A bar under the symbol means clean gently, and two bars means very gentle cleaning.

Dry cleaning

The letters P and F in a circle are for the different

solvent A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...

s used in professional

dry cleaning Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water. Clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent (usually non-polar, as opposed to water which is a Solvent#Solvent classifications, polar ...

. File:Professionelle_reinigung.svg, Professional cleaning symbol File:Professionelle reinigung (F).svg, Dry clean, hydrocarbon solvent only (HCS) File:Professionelle reinigung (F)s.svg, Gentle cleaning with hydrocarbon solvents File:Professionelle reinigung (F)ss.svg, Very gentle cleaning with hydrocarbon solvents File:Professionelle reinigung (P).svg, Dry clean,

tetrachloroethylene Tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchloroethylene or under the systematic name tetrachloroethene, and abbreviations such as perc (or PERC), and PCE, is a chlorocarbon with the formula . It is a non-flammable, stable, colorless and heavy liqu ...

(PCE) only File:Professionelle reinigung (P)s.svg, Gentle cleaning with PCE File:Professionelle reinigung (P)ss.svg, Very gentle cleaning with PCE File:Nicht chemisch reinigen.svg, Do not dry clean

Wet cleaning

The letter W in a circle is for professional wet cleaning. File:Professionelle reinigung (W).svg, Professional wet cleaning File:Professionelle reinigung (W)s.svg, Gentle wet cleaning File:Professionelle reinigung (W)ss.svg, Very gentle wet cleaning File:Nicht nassreinigen.svg, Do not wet clean

References

External links

GINETEX: The International Association for Textile Care Labelling-Care Symbols

* ttps://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/office-consumer-affairs/en/product-safety-recalls-and-labelling/guide-apparel-and-textile-care-symbols The revised Canadian standard
Swedish care symbols

US, Japanese, and UK woven washing label symbols
{{Public health Consumer symbols

Symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

Pictograms