The decoder
Every laundry symbol, and what it actually means.
Describe the shape you are looking at and we will tell you what it means. There are two systems in the world, and the label in your hand follows whichever one the maker sold into, which may not be the one where you live. Both are here, and the places they disagree are written out rather than glossed over.
Plain words work. You do not need to know it is called a tub.
Your labels
Set from your timezone. Choose Both if the label came from somewhere else.
All 45 symbols.
Washing
The tub
Whether the article can be washed at all, how hot the water may be, and how roughly the machine may treat it.
Wash at 30°C
Machine wash, 30°C maximum.
The international symbol prints the number. The American one prints one dot, and calls it cool or cold, which its own chart puts at 65 to 85°F.
Wash at 30°C, mild
30°C maximum, with reduced mechanical action.
Same bar, different name. ISO calls it a mild cycle. American labels call it permanent press.
Wash at 30°C, very mild
30°C maximum, with much reduced mechanical action.
ISO calls two bars very mild; American labels call it delicate or gentle.
Wash at 40°C
Machine wash, 40°C maximum.
Two dots on an American label, marked warm, which its chart puts at 105°F.
Wash at 50°C
Machine wash, 50°C maximum.
Three dots, marked hot at 120°F, is ordinary on an American label. The number 50 is permitted internationally but rare in the shops; GINETEX's own consumer set skips from 40 to 60.
Wash at 60°C
Machine wash, 60°C maximum.
Four dots on an American label, marked very hot at 140°F, and drawn as a square of four rather than a row.
Wash at 70°C
Machine wash, 70°C maximum.
International only. American labels stop at four dots, so 70 has no ASTM equivalent.
Wash at 95°C
Machine wash, 95°C maximum. A boil wash.
International only, and increasingly rare on any label.
Hand wash
Hand wash only. 40°C maximum, or cooler still on a recent label.
Still checking this drawing. ISO 3758:2023 revised this symbol and added a second hand-wash mark for ambient temperature. GINETEX has published neither drawing, so the long-standing hand tub is shown here while we confirm both against the standard itself.
Do not wash
No domestic washing, by hand or machine.
Still checking this drawing. ISO 3758:2023 revised this drawing. Shown here in the long-standing form, which is what almost every label in circulation still carries, while we confirm the new one against the standard itself.
Bleaching
The triangle
Three symbols, and the one most often misread. An empty triangle does not mean bleach it; it means bleach is survivable.
Do not bleach
No bleach of any kind. Use a bleach-free detergent.
Older American charts fill the triangle solid black instead of leaving it open. It is the same instruction, and the crossed outline shown here is the form both standards now use.
Drying
The square
A circle inside the square means a tumble dryer. Lines inside it mean the washing line, and the two standards draw these least alike.
Tumble dry, reduced heat
Tumble dry on a low or mild setting.
Both draw one dot and both mean gentler, but only ISO puts a number on it: a mild process at around 60°C.
Tumble dry, normal heat
Tumble dry at a normal setting.
The trap in the whole decoder. Two dots is the hottest international setting there is, a normal load at around 80°C. On an American label the same two dots are the middle of three, marked medium, with a hotter setting above them.
Tumble dry, high heat
Tumble dry on a high setting.
American labels only. ISO's dryer scale stops at two dots, so three dots means the label was written for the United States or Canada.
Tumble dry, no heat
Tumble with air only, no heat at all.
American labels only, and the one symbol where a solid black fill means something other than a prohibition.
Line dry
Hang it up to dry.
Drawn quite differently. ISO puts a single vertical line inside the square. The American symbol draws a sagging clothesline across the top of it, which reads as a curve rather than a line.
Drip dry, on a line
Hang it up soaking wet, without wringing or spinning.
Two vertical lines internationally, three on an American label, and the American symbol does not say whether to hang it or lay it flat.
Drip dry, flat
Lay it flat soaking wet, without wringing or spinning.
International only. The American set has a single drip-dry symbol and leaves the position to you.
Dry in the shade
Keep it out of direct sunlight while it dries.
Both add the same oblique stroke in the top-left corner, and both add it to whichever drying symbol applies rather than using it alone.
Do not dry
No drying by any of these methods.
American labels only, and never alone: its own chart says it is used alongside do not wash.
Do not wring
Do not twist the water out.
American labels only. Internationally the instruction is carried in words, or by the hand-wash symbol's own guidance.
Ironing
The iron
Dots for the soleplate's maximum temperature. The two standards disagree on the exact figures, which is worth knowing before you scorch something.
Iron on low
Cool iron. Around 110 to 120°C at the soleplate.
The two disagree on the figure. ASTM's chart says 110°C, or 230°F; GINETEX's own guidance says 120°C. Set the dial by the dots, not the number.
Iron on low, without steam
Cool iron, dry. No steam.
New in ISO 3758:2023, so recent labels only, and there is no single American equivalent: their chart adds a separate no-steam symbol beside the iron instead.
Iron on medium
Warm iron. Around 150 to 160°C at the soleplate.
ASTM says 150°C, or 300°F. GINETEX says 160°C.
Iron on high
Hot iron. Around 200 to 210°C at the soleplate.
ASTM says 200°C, or 390°F. GINETEX says 210°C.
Do not steam
Iron dry. The steam function stays off.
On an American label this is added next to the iron. Internationally it is folded into the one-dot no-steam symbol introduced in 2023.
Do not iron
No ironing at all.
Still checking this drawing. ISO 3758:2023 revised the international drawing. Shown here in the long-standing form, which is what almost every label in circulation still carries, while we confirm the new one against the standard itself.
Professional care
The circle
Not instructions for you. The letters tell a professional cleaner which solvent to use, and the bars how gently.
Dry clean, any solvent
Professional dry cleaning in any solvent.
American labels only. ISO has dropped the A, since naming the permitted solvents is more useful to the cleaner than permitting all of them.
Professional wet cleaning
Professional wet cleaning, a water process, with no restrictions.
International only. The American chart in general circulation predates the W and does not carry it.
Do not wet clean
No professional wet cleaning.
International only, for the same reason as the W itself.
The app
Reading the label is the easy half. Knowing what to do about it is the rest.
The Wash Guide reads the symbols with you, then works out the dose and the temperature for the load actually in front of you.
Join the waitlist45 symbols, drawn from ISO 3758:2023 as published by GINETEX, and from the ASTM guide to care symbols used in the United States and Canada. Where the two give different figures for the same symbol, both are shown.
The care symbols are trade marks of GINETEX, which owns and publishes ISO 3758; the American symbols are ASTM International’s. The drawings on this page are our own, made to explain what the symbols mean, and they are shown here for information and education: to help people read the labels they already own. The Wash Guide is not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by either body, and this page is a guide to the standards rather than a substitute for them.