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A neat stack of folded knitwear and cotton shirts in terracotta, oatmeal, sage and denim tones on a linen-covered table by a sunny window
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CARE LABELS, DECODED

Read the label.
Keep the clothes.

Five little pictures tell you how a garment wants to be washed, dried and ironed.

The washtub, triangle, square, iron and circle on a clothes label are an international code. Numbers are maximum temperatures, dots mean heat, bars mean gentler, and a cross means don’t. Here is how to read them, in plain English.

Plain English, with the sources linked.

30° is a ceiling

Decode a symbol

THE SHORT ANSWER

Five shapes, one order.

Labels list the symbols in a fixed order:
washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, professional care.

WASHTUB

The number is a limit

The figure in the tub is the maximum water temperature in °C. Bars underneath ask for a gentler cycle.

Decode the washtub

SQUARE

Dots mean heat

A circle in the square is the tumble dryer. More dots, more heat; lines in the square mean air drying.

Dryer temperatures

TRIANGLE, IRON, CIRCLE

A cross means don’t

Any symbol with a cross through it rules that treatment out, whether bleach, iron or dry cleaning.

Try the decoder
Hands gently washing a soft oatmeal knitted jumper in a wide ceramic basin of water
AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

BEFORE YOU WASH

Four habits
that save clothes.

  1. Read the label before the first wash

    Check the five positions once, while the label is still crisp, and sort the garment into the right pile from then on.

  2. Treat the number as a ceiling

    The washtub figure is the hottest the garment can take. A cooler wash stays within the label.

  3. Set the iron by the dots

    GINETEX advises choosing the iron temperature from the care label, not from the fibre content. With mixed fibres, the dots settle it.

  4. Hand wash gently

    Dissolve the detergent in plenty of water first, let the garment float, then rinse well and press the water out rather than wringing.

THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE DOTS

Dots are degrees,
roughly speaking.

On the iron and the tumble dryer,
each dot stands for a band of heat.

120 · 160 · 210 °C

One, two or three dots

GINETEX matches one dot to the setting for acrylic, nylon and acetate, two dots to wool, silk, polyester and viscose, and three dots to cotton and linen.

IRON · SOLE PLATE MAXIMUM

60 vs 80 °C

One dot or two dots

Two dots mean normal tumble drying at a normal load and temperature, given as 80 °C. One dot means a mild process with reduced heat, given as 60 °C, and often a shorter time.

TUMBLE DRYER · PROCESS

These are maximums. Going cooler is always within the label; going hotter risks the irreversible damage the system is designed to prevent.

A QUICK SYMBOL DECODER

What is that
shape telling you?

Pick the shape you can see on the label. The meanings follow the GINETEX care labelling system, which the international standard ISO 3758 also uses.

Symbol decoder

Choose the shape on your label
A bowl of water, often with a number insideWashing

The number is the maximum water temperature in °C, not a target. One bar underneath means a milder cycle; two bars mean a very mild one, for example for machine-washable wool. A hand in the tub means hand wash.

An empty triangle, or one with two slanted linesBleaching

An empty triangle allows any bleach, chlorine or oxygen. Two slanted lines inside mean oxygen bleach only, the kind found in many everyday detergents, and no chlorine.

A square with a circle inside it, and dotsTumble drying

The circle means tumble drying. Two dots mean a normal process (GINETEX gives about 80 °C); one dot means a mild one with reduced heat (about 60 °C).

A square with straight lines inside itNatural drying

Lines in the square describe air drying: line drying, drip drying or flat drying. An extra slanted line in the corner means dry it in the shade.

A simple iron shape with one, two or three dotsIroning

Dots show the maximum sole plate temperature: one dot 120 °C, two dots 160 °C, three dots 210 °C, according to GINETEX. A separate symbol, added to ISO 3758 in 2023, means iron without steam.

A plain circle, usually with a letter insideProfessional care

The circle is for professional dry cleaning or wet cleaning. The letters tell the cleaner which solvents or processes may be used. Bars underneath mean a gentler process.

Position in the label order shown above. Source: GINETEX.

The symbols are registered trademarks of GINETEX, so this guide describes them in words rather than drawing them.

A cream wool jumper laid flat to dry on a mesh rack, beside a wooden airer with a green shirt and a terracotta T-shirt
AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

LABEL FACTS

Five things worth
knowing.

  1. The order is fixed

    GINETEX specifies that the symbols appear in the order washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and professional textile care, so the same position always means the same treatment.

  2. The symbols are trademarks

    The care symbols are international trademarks owned by GINETEX and registered with the World Intellectual Property Organization. GINETEX was founded in Paris in 1963.

  3. The standard was updated in 2023

    ISO 3758:2023, the fourth edition, was published on 6 December 2023. It brought the standard closer to the GINETEX symbols and added hand washing at ambient temperature and ironing without steam.

  4. Hand wash has two temperatures

    GINETEX defines hand washing at an ambient temperature of around 20 to 30 °C, and hand washing at up to 40 °C. Either way: do not rub, pull or wring.

  5. US labels follow different rules

    In the United States, the FTC Care Labeling Rule requires a washing or dry-cleaning instruction. Symbols from ASTM may replace the words, and labels must stay legible for the useful life of the garment.

QUICK QUESTIONS

Care labels, answered.

Short answers to the questions people ask most.

What does the number in the washtub symbol mean?

It is the maximum washing temperature in degrees Celsius, which should not be exceeded. Washing cooler is fine. One bar under the tub means a milder cycle with reduced mechanical action; two bars mean a very mild cycle, for example for woollens.

What do the dots on the iron symbol mean?

They give the maximum sole plate temperature. According to GINETEX, one dot is 120 °C, two dots 160 °C and three dots 210 °C. GINETEX advises choosing the temperature from the label rather than from the fibre content.

What does a cross through a care symbol mean?

A cross over any symbol means that treatment should not be used: a crossed-out washtub means do not wash, a crossed-out triangle means do not bleach, and so on. In 2010 GINETEX returned the do-not-bleach triangle to an open outline instead of a filled one.

What does a circle on a clothes label mean?

A circle refers to professional care, either dry cleaning or wet cleaning. The letter inside is meant for the professional cleaner and indicates which solvents or processes may be used. A bar underneath asks for a gentler process.

Who decides what care label symbols look like?

GINETEX, the International Association for Textile Care Labelling, founded in Paris in 1963, owns the symbols as registered trademarks. The international standard ISO 3758 uses the same system; its latest edition was published in December 2023.

Sources

  1. Care symbols: washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and professional careGINETEX
  2. The worldwide care labelling system (brochure)GINETEX
  3. ISO 3758:2023 Textiles: Care labelling code using symbolsISO
  4. What changed in ISO 3758:2023Bureau Veritas
  5. Clothes captioning: complying with the Care Labeling RuleUS Federal Trade Commission
  6. GINETEX updates the do-not-bleach symbolSGS, 2010

Updated

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