How do you read the symbols on a care label?

How it works

Care labels use five basic shapes, always in the same order: a wash tub for washing, a triangle for bleaching, a square for drying, an iron for ironing and a circle for professional cleaning. A cross over a shape means the treatment is not allowed. The system is set out in the international standard ISO 3758, and GINETEX, the international association for textile care labelling, explains it on its website.

Details inside or under the shape set the limits. The number in the tub is the highest water temperature in degrees Celsius. Bars under the tub or circle ask for a gentler cycle: one bar is mild, two bars very mild, like a wool programme. Dots stand for heat: in the tumble dryer one dot means low heat (exhaust air up to 60 °C) and two dots normal heat (80 °C); on the iron one dot is at most 120 °C, two dots 160 °C and three dots 210 °C.

Example: a sweater labelled with a tub with 30 and two bars, a crossed-out square with a circle and an iron with one dot should go on the wool cycle at 30 °C, dry without a tumble dryer, and be ironed at most at the lowest setting.

Labels in the United States follow the similar ASTM D5489 symbols, which can show wash temperatures as dots in the tub instead of numbers (one dot about 30 °C, up to six dots about 95 °C). The drawings here are our own renderings of the standard shapes, not the official artwork.