Ironing symbols, and what each one means.
Dots on the iron give the soleplate's maximum temperature, and there are only ever three of them: one is cool, two is warm, three is hot. The dots are a ceiling, so a cooler setting is always safe and is usually the better guess on anything you care about.
The two standards disagree on the exact figures behind each dot, which is worth knowing before you scorch something, so the temperatures on each symbol's own page give both. The struck-through steam plume underneath the iron is a separate instruction: iron it dry, with the steam function off.
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.
Revised in 2023. ISO 3758:2023 changed the international drawing, and GINETEX names the change without publishing the new artwork. Shown here in the long-standing form, which is what almost every label in circulation carries.
Where it sits on the label
Ironing comes fourth of the five. A label is always written in this order and simply leaves out whatever does not apply, so a tag carrying only three symbols is not missing anything.
The rest of the label
- Washing symbols13 symbols
- Bleaching symbols3 symbols
- Drying symbols13 symbols
- Dry cleaning symbols10 symbols
Or search the whole set by describing what you can see on the decoder.