How the five shapes work
Care labels are a picture language with exactly five words. Learn the shapes once and you can read any label, including the ones this sheet does not spell out:
| Shape | Means | The common marks |
|---|---|---|
| Washtub | Washing | Number = max °C · hand = hand wash · bar = milder · cross = do not wash |
| Triangle | Bleaching | Empty = any bleach · two lines = non-chlorine only · cross = do not bleach |
| Square | Drying | Circle inside = tumble dry, dots = heat · upright line = line dry · two = drip dry · flat line = dry flat |
| Iron | Ironing | Dots = low / medium / high (about 110 / 150 / 200 °C) |
| Circle | Professional care | P, F = dry-clean solvents · W = wet clean · cross = do not dry clean |
The symbol set is defined by the two care-labelling standards, ISO 3758 (the international code maintained by GINETEX) and ASTM D5489 (the North American standard). Both rest on the same five shapes and the same grading rules, which is why a label bought in Toronto reads the same as one bought in Berlin. The drawings on this sheet are our own; the meanings are the standards’.
What the sheet does not know
A care label states limits, not instructions. A tub saying 40 does not know your machine’s programs; an iron with three dots does not know your iron’s dial. The bars and dots grade treatment in steps — mild, very mild, low, normal — without exact machine settings behind them, and the professional-care letters are addressed to your dry cleaner, not to you. Where the international and North American standards attach slightly different numbers to the same dots, this sheet says so instead of picking one and presenting it as the label’s word.
That honesty is the point: the sheet decodes what the label actually says, no more. What you do with a 40 °C limit, a no-bleach triangle and a laundromat on a Tuesday is still your call.
Why a printed sheet beats an app
The question this tool answers arrives at the machine, with wet hands: what does this label say? An app answers it after an unlock, a search and an advert. A sheet on the wall answers it in one glance, for everyone in the house, without a battery — and unlike a screen, paper survives the laundry room. Tap, decode, print once, and hang it where the question happens.
The longer plain-words walk — what each of the five shapes means, why the number in the tub is a temperature and not a program, and how the UK and North American codes fit together — is in the guide What do the laundry symbols on a care label mean?.
The sheet is part of the fashion hub, beside the capsule wardrobe checklist and the weekly outfit planner — the wardrobe jobs that end on paper. Nothing you tap leaves this page: the decoder, the printout and the PDF all run locally in your browser.
Questions
What do the laundry symbols actually mean?
Five shapes carry the whole system. A washtub is washing (the number inside is the maximum water temperature in Celsius, a hand means hand wash only, bars underneath mean a milder cycle, a cross means do not wash). A triangle is bleaching (two diagonal lines inside mean non-chlorine bleach only, a cross means do not bleach). A square is drying (a circle inside means tumble dry, dots mean low or normal heat, lines inside mean line dry or dry flat). An iron is ironing (one, two or three dots are roughly 110, 150 and 200 °C). A circle is professional care (P and F name the dry-cleaning solvents, W means professional wet cleaning). A cross through any symbol is always a prohibition.
Which standard do these symbols come from?
The symbols follow ISO 3758, the international care-labelling code maintained by GINETEX, and ASTM D5489, the North American standard that uses the same five shapes. The meanings on this sheet are the standards' own, written in plain words. The two systems overlap heavily; where regions differ in fine detail (for example, how drying dots map to exact temperatures), this sheet states the common reading rather than inventing precision the label does not carry.
Does the number in the washtub mean the wash program or the temperature?
The temperature. A tub with 40 means the water should not exceed 40 °C — it is a maximum, not a program name. The program gentleness is carried separately by bars under the tub: one bar means a mild cycle, two bars mean very mild. Your machine's own 40 °C eco program can behave differently from its 40 °C cotton program, so with a bar on the label pick the gentler one.
Is the printable sheet free?
Yes. One page, A4 or US Letter, black on white, no watermark, no account, no email address. The PDF is built on your device and the print button uses your browser's own print dialog.
Why does my label have symbols that are not on this sheet?
The sheet carries the twenty-two symbols that cover the labels on almost every garment sold. Rarer variants exist — a washtub at 95 °C, drip-dry lines, dry-in-shade corners, a no-steam cross under the iron — and the five-shape system reads them the same way: dots and lines grade the treatment, a cross forbids it. If a symbol on your label is not on the sheet, its shape still tells you which family it belongs to.
Is anything uploaded from this page?
No. The decoder, the printout and the PDF are all computed inside your browser. No account, and no request carries anything you tapped.
What does the P in a circle mean?
P in a circle is a dry-cleaning instruction: the garment can be dry cleaned by a professional using any solvent except trichloroethylene. The letter is addressed to your dry cleaner, not to you — F means petroleum solvent only, W means professional wet cleaning, and a cross through the circle means do not dry clean.
What does a square with a vertical line mean?
Dry it on a line. One upright line inside the square means line dry, two upright lines mean drip dry — hang the garment wet and let it drip — and a horizontal line means dry flat. A circle inside the square instead means tumble dry, with dots for the heat level.
Which laundry symbol means do not wash?
The washtub with a cross through it. That garment must not go into water at all: take it to professional care, or spot-clean it if the label's other symbols allow that.