Entry 01 · care labels
Tap the symbols on your clothing label, or search for them, and read what each one means and what the whole label asks you to do.
Try a label:
ISO / GINETEX · washing
Wash at 40 °C, normal cycle
Machine wash at no more than 40 °C (104 °F) on a normal cycle, with full washing action (a cottons programme).
The number is the highest water temperature in degrees Celsius; cooler is always allowed. GINETEX suggests it for darker cotton, polyester and mixed fabrics. No bar under the tub means the normal process.
Care labels use five basic symbols, nearly always in the same order: a washtub for washing, a triangle for bleaching, a square for drying, an iron for ironing and a circle for professional cleaning. Dots, bars, numbers and letters refine them, and a cross through any symbol means "do not".
Using the decoder. First choose the label style. A number inside the tub (30, 40, 60) means the international system, ISO 3758, which GINETEX maintains and Japan has used since December 2016. Dots inside the tub mean the US and Canadian system, ASTM D5489. Then tap the symbols on your label, one from each row, or type into the search box: "40", "line dry", "P" and "no steam" all work. The card explains the symbol you tapped, and the panel below reads the whole label back in order as plain instructions, with a note on anything missing.
What the marks mean. A number is the hottest water allowed, in °C. Under the tub, one bar asks for a gentler cycle and two bars for a very gentle one. Dots stand for heat: one dot is cool or low, and each extra dot is hotter. In the circle, the letter tells the dry cleaner which solvent is safe, and W means professional wet cleaning.
Worked example. A cotton T-shirt shows a tub with 40, a triangle with two lines, a square with a circle and one dot, an iron with two dots and a circled P. Read in order: machine wash at up to 40 °C on a normal cycle; oxygen bleach only; tumble dry on low; iron at medium heat; can be dry cleaned. Copy the result, print it as a care card to go with a handmade gift, or copy the link to share exactly these symbols.
The two systems share the five shapes, but some details mean different things. Japan's standard, JIS L 0001, adopted the ISO symbols in 2016, so read Japanese labels as "Europe & world".
| Symbol detail | Europe & world (ISO 3758, GINETEX) | USA & Canada (ASTM D5489) |
|---|---|---|
| Wash temperature | A number: the maximum °C | Dots: 1 = 30 °C, 2 = 40 °C, 3 = 50 °C, 4 = 60 °C, 5 = 70 °C, 6 = 95 °C; an empty tub means any temperature |
| Bars under the tub | 1 bar: mild process; 2 bars: very mild | 1 bar: permanent press; 2 bars: delicate or gentle |
| Do not bleach | Crossed triangle | Solid black triangle, crossed |
| Tumble-dry heat | 1 dot: low (60 °C exhaust); 2 dots: normal (80 °C) | Empty circle: any heat; 1, 2, 3 dots: low, medium, high; filled circle: no heat |
| Natural drying | Vertical line: hang; horizontal: flat; two lines: drip dry; one corner line: shade | Curve at the top: line dry; three vertical lines: drip dry; horizontal line: flat; two corner lines: shade |
| Ironing | Always 1–3 dots (110, 150, 200 °C); since 2023 also "no steam" | Same dots; a plain iron means any temperature; crossed steam lines: no steam |
| Professional care | P or F tells the cleaner the solvent; W: wet cleaning; bars: milder process | Empty circle: any solvent; P: not trichloroethylene; F: petroleum solvent only; W: wet cleaning |
| Only on US labels | None | Do not wring; do not dry |
Four more tools for looking after fabric, and for colouring it.
Step-by-step methods for 22 common stains, plus a routine for unknown ones, adjusted for wool, silk and dry-clean-only fabric, with the safety rules.
Weigh your fibre and get the mordant, dyestuff and water amounts at published % WOF figures.
The right temperature for whites, darks, wool, towels or a sick household, capped by the care label.
Wash a test swatch, measure it and find out how much extra fabric to cut or buy.
Two free services for the online side of buying and caring for clothes.
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Fabric shops, detergent brands and craft suppliers often ask for an email address before they send a care guide, a pattern or a discount code. CleanTempMail gives you a free disposable inbox at once, with no registration, a random or custom address on hundreds of domains, and messages deleted automatically after three days.
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Some swing tags and labels now carry QR codes, and bargain fabric shops turn up in search results every day. If a link or a shop looks unfamiliar, WebTraceCheck opens it in a disposable cloud browser on an isolated desktop that is deleted after the session, and its free domain lookup shows the details behind a site.
Try WebTraceCheckDots are the North American way of showing water temperature, from the ASTM D5489 guide used in the USA and Canada: one dot is 30 °C (cool), two dots 40 °C, three 50 °C, four 60 °C, five 70 °C and six 95 °C. European and most other labels print the temperature in °C instead. Choose "USA & Canada" in the decoder to see the dot symbols.
A gentler wash. On international labels one bar means a mild process, like a synthetics or easy-care programme, and two bars a very mild one, like a wool programme with a small load. On US labels one bar means the permanent-press cycle and two bars the delicate or gentle cycle. Either way, use less agitation and a slower spin.
Look at the washtub. If it shows a temperature or a hand, washing is allowed too, and the circle simply adds a professional option. If the tub is crossed out, washing at home risks shrinkage, colour loss or a ruined shape. In the USA, the FTC allows "Dryclean only" on a label only when the maker has evidence that washing would damage the item.
Yes, for clothes made since December 2016. Japan's standard JIS L 0001 was aligned with ISO 3758, so choose "Europe & world" in the decoder. Older Japanese garments carry the previous symbols with Japanese words inside them, which this decoder does not cover.
On US labels a missing instruction often means there is nothing to worry about: under the Care Labeling Rule, a label that never mentions bleach means every bleach is safe, and no temperature means hot water is fine. International labels give no such promise, so when a symbol is absent, choose the gentler option.
They are maximums. A 40 °C label means 40 °C or cooler, a two-dot iron means medium heat or lower, and a normal cycle can always be swapped for a gentler one. Going hotter or rougher than the label allows is what causes shrinking, felting and fading.