What the symbols mean
Those little hieroglyphics on the care label are a real standard, not decoration. Five shapes carry the whole system — once you know the shapes, the rest is just dots and bars.
33 little hieroglyphics. Cross = don't. Dots = heat. Bars = be gentle. That's the whole system.
The five shapes
- A cross through a symbol always means don't. No exceptions.
- Dots mean heat — more dots, more heat. In a tub they're the water temperature; in an iron or a dryer they're how hot it can get.
- Bars underneath mean go easier: one bar = permanent press / reduced action, two bars = delicate / very gentle. No bar = normal.
- US labels (ASTM) use dots for temperature; European labels (ISO/GINETEX) print the number of degrees in the tub instead. Same idea, same shapes.
Washing
The tub is the wash. Dots (or a number) are the water temperature; bars underneath are how rough the machine may be.
Machine wash, normal
Any normal cycle is fine. Temperature isn't restricted, so use whatever the load actually needs.
Just wash it.
Cold — 30°C / 65–85°F
Cold wash. Where most of your laundry belongs anyway — modern enzyme detergents clean fine in cold.
Cold.
Warm — 40°C / 105°F
Warm wash. Good for bedding, baby clothes and mildly grubby stuff.
Warm.
Hot — 50–60°C / 120–140°F
Hot wash. Sturdy white cotton, towels, and the dust-mite-killing weekly sheet wash.
Hot. Whites and towels.
Very hot — 70–95°C / 160–200°F
Sanitizing heat, mostly for workwear, nappies and illness. Four to six dots exist but you'll rarely see them.
Boiling. Rare.
Permanent press
One bar = reduced agitation and a slower spin. Press Permanent Press / Synthetics — it's there to stop creasing.
One bar: take it easy.
Delicate / gentle
Two bars = very gentle. Delicate cycle, low spin, small load. Two bars is the machine's way of saying 'barely touch this'.
Two bars: barely touch it.
Hand wash
Hand wash only, cool water, no wringing. Many machines have a Hand Wash cycle that's an acceptable stand-in — but it's your gamble.
Hands. In the sink.
Do not wash
Water is not this garment's friend. Usually means dry clean — check the circle for what solvent.
Don't. Not even once.
Do not wring
Don't twist the water out. Press it between towels instead — wringing distorts knits and wool permanently.
Don't twist it.
Bleaching
The triangle is always about bleach. Empty means anything goes; the two stripes mean colour-safe only.
Any bleach allowed
Chlorine or oxygen bleach are both allowed — which mostly means it's a sturdy white cotton. Still start with oxygen bleach.
Bleach is fine.
Non-chlorine bleach only
Oxygen / colour-safe bleach only (OxiClean and friends). Chlorine bleach will strip the dye or eat the fibre.
OxiClean only. No Clorox.
Do not bleach
No bleach of any kind. Common on wool, silk, spandex and anything dyed a colour someone cared about.
No bleach at all.
Tumble drying
A circle inside the square is the dryer. Dots are the heat setting; a filled circle means no heat at all.
Tumble dry, normal
Machine drying is fine at any normal setting.
Dryer's fine.
Tumble dry, low heat
Low heat. Synthetics, activewear and anything with elastic — heat is what kills stretch.
Low heat.
Tumble dry, medium heat
Medium. The safe default for most everyday cotton and blends.
Medium.
Tumble dry, high heat
High heat. Towels, jeans, sturdy cotton — fast, but it's also what wears clothes out fastest.
High. Towels and jeans.
Tumble dry, no heat
Air fluff / no heat. Tumbling only — good for freshening or fluffing something you air-dried.
Tumble, no heat.
Do not tumble dry
The dryer will shrink, melt or bobble it. Air dry — see the natural-drying symbols below.
Not in the dryer.
Natural drying
A square with lines in it is air drying. Vertical = hang, horizontal = flat, diagonal corner = keep it out of the sun.
Line dry
Hang it up, wet, and let it drip on a line or hanger.
Hang it up.
Drip dry
Hang it soaking wet, no spin, and let gravity pull the wrinkles out. Typical for rayon and non-iron shirts.
Hang it dripping wet.
Dry flat
Lay it flat on a towel and reshape it. This is the one that saves your knitwear — hanging wet wool stretches it into a sad long ghost of a sweater.
Flat. Or your sweater grows.
Dry in the shade
Out of direct sunlight. Sun fades dark dyes and yellows some whites and silks. Usually combined with one of the other drying symbols.
Out of the sun.
Ironing
Dots are the plate temperature. Little crossed-out puffs underneath mean no steam.
Iron, low — 110°C / 230°F
Low. Synthetics, acrylic, nylon, anything that can melt. Use a pressing cloth if you're nervous.
Low. It can melt.
Iron, medium — 150°C / 300°F
Medium. Wool, polyester blends, most everyday shirts.
Medium.
Iron, high — 200°C / 390°F
High. Cotton and linen — the fabrics that actually need the heat to give up a crease.
High. Cotton and linen.
Do not steam
Dry iron only. Steam leaves water marks or shine on some fabrics — silk especially.
No steam.
Do not iron
The heat will melt, glaze or flatten it. If it just needs de-wrinkling, hang it in a steamy bathroom.
Don't iron it.
Professional cleaning
The circle is for the pros. The letter tells the cleaner which solvent to use — it's information for them, not for you.
Dry clean
Dry clean — any solvent. Hand it over and don't think about it.
Dry clean.
Dry clean, P solvent
Perchloroethylene ('perc') and hydrocarbon solvents. This is standard dry cleaning — the cleaner reads this, you don't have to.
Dry clean. Their problem.
Dry clean, F solvent
Hydrocarbon solvent only — gentler than perc. Again: the cleaner's business.
Dry clean. Their problem.
Professional wet clean
A professional water-based clean. Not the same as dry cleaning, and definitely not the same as your machine.
Pro wash. Not yours.
Do not dry clean
Dry-cleaning solvents would wreck it — often seen on PVC, some prints, and glued-on trims.
No dry cleaning.
Worth knowing
- US (ASTM) labels use dots for temperature; European (ISO/GINETEX) ones print the number — 30, 40, 60 — inside the tub. The shapes mean the same thing on both.
- A bar under any symbol means 'be gentler'. Two bars means 'be much gentler'. It applies to the whole symbol it sits under, not just the tub.
- The label is the floor, not the ceiling: a garment rated for a hot wash is virtually always happy in a cold one. It doesn't work the other way round.