No smoking symbol

A lit cigarette in a red circle with a diagonal bar.

Also known as: No smoking sign, Smoking prohibited, Crossed out cigarette, Cigarette with a line through it, ISO 7010 P002

Everyday & digitalSafety & hazardStandard profile

Meanings

A cigarette inside a red circle with a bar across it prohibits smoking. It is probably the most widely recognised prohibition sign in the world, and the clearest example of the red-circle grammar: the circle forbids, it does not warn.

Common modern usageVerified fact
Prohibits smoking in the area where the sign is displayed.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Demonstrates the general prohibition construction: any activity drawn inside a red circle with a diagonal bar is forbidden, so the same grammar produces no-photography, no-dogs and no-mobile-phones signs from different pictograms.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageCommon usage
Is increasingly drawn with a vaping device alongside or instead of the cigarette, as smoking bans have extended to electronic cigarettes in many places.
Whether a plain cigarette symbol covers vaping is a question of the local rule, not of the symbol. Symbolwise does not state what any jurisdiction prohibits.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Belongs to the prohibition class of safety signs, drawn as a black pictogram in a red circle with a diagonal bar across it. The red circle means the depicted action is forbidden, not that it is dangerous.
Contexts: Public information
Officially standardisedVerified fact
Is registered in ISO 7010 as P002, no smoking, and shows the prohibition grammar in its clearest form: a red ring with a red bar drawn across it at forty-five degrees, running from upper left to lower right, over a black pictogram of the thing forbidden.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Is the sign most people have learnt the prohibition convention from, which is why an unfamiliar red-ringed pictogram is read correctly on sight. The bar always crosses the same way; a mirrored bar is a drawing error rather than a variant.
Contexts: Public information

Visual description

A lit cigarette drawn horizontally with a wisp of smoke rising, inside a red circular outline crossed by a red diagonal bar running from upper left to lower right.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright
Colours: red, white, black

Commonly confused with: Mandatory action symbol
Both are circular signs whose meaning is carried entirely by colour and fill: a red ring with a bar forbids, a solid blue disc requires.

Compare: Red circle vs blue circle on a safety sign →

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originLow confidence: Low confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Smoking ban
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
Safety sign
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
ISO 3864, Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-22
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so records can state that the safety-sign colour and shape conventions — green for safe condition, red for prohibition and fire equipment, yellow for warning, blue for mandatory action — are set by a standard rather than by convention. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.
No symbol
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
ISO 7010, Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-02
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so records can state that a sign has a standard reference and a defined shape and colour — E003 for first aid, E010 for a defibrillator. The catalogue of registered signs and their reference numbers is public even where the standard text is not. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.

Last reviewed 2026-08-22

Part of

Safety signs and their shape-and-colour grammar

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Meanings

Common modern usageVerified fact

Prohibits smoking in the area where the sign is displayed.

Contexts: Public information

Common modern usageVerified fact

Demonstrates the general prohibition construction: any activity drawn inside a red circle with a diagonal bar is forbidden, so the same grammar produces no-photography, no-dogs and no-mobile-phones signs from different pictograms.

Contexts: Public information

Common modern usageCommon usage

Is increasingly drawn with a vaping device alongside or instead of the cigarette, as smoking bans have extended to electronic cigarettes in many places.

Whether a plain cigarette symbol covers vaping is a question of the local rule, not of the symbol. Symbolwise does not state what any jurisdiction prohibits.

Contexts: Public information

Common modern usageVerified fact

Belongs to the prohibition class of safety signs, drawn as a black pictogram in a red circle with a diagonal bar across it. The red circle means the depicted action is forbidden, not that it is dangerous.

Contexts: Public information

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Is registered in ISO 7010 as P002, no smoking, and shows the prohibition grammar in its clearest form: a red ring with a red bar drawn across it at forty-five degrees, running from upper left to lower right, over a black pictogram of the thing forbidden.

Contexts: Public information

Common modern usageVerified fact

Is the sign most people have learnt the prohibition convention from, which is why an unfamiliar red-ringed pictogram is read correctly on sight. The bar always crosses the same way; a mirrored bar is a drawing error rather than a variant.

Contexts: Public information

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originLow confidence: Low confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Smoking ban
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
Safety sign
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
ISO 3864, Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-22
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so records can state that the safety-sign colour and shape conventions — green for safe condition, red for prohibition and fire equipment, yellow for warning, blue for mandatory action — are set by a standard rather than by convention. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.
No symbol
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
ISO 7010, Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-02
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so records can state that a sign has a standard reference and a defined shape and colour — E003 for first aid, E010 for a defibrillator. The catalogue of registered signs and their reference numbers is public even where the standard text is not. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.

Last reviewed 2026-08-22

Meanings

Visual description

Related & commonly confused symbols

Meanings

Visual description

Related & commonly confused symbols