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The care symbols on a garment tag: wash, bleach, dry, iron and professional care.
Care labelling is a real standardised system, which makes it one of the most reliably readable settings here. Five base shapes carry the five treatments — a tub for washing, a triangle for bleaching, a square for drying, an iron for ironing and a circle for professional care — and everything else modifies one of them with dots, bars or a cross. Learning the five shapes is most of the work; a bar under a symbol means a gentler cycle and a cross through it means do not.
These records say so themselves — the setting appears in the symbol's own reviewed description or in one of its documented meanings.
A triangle outline, the GINETEX base symbol for bleaching instructions on a garment care label.
Its description places it there: “…symbol for bleaching instructions on a garment care label”
A square containing a circle, crossed through with an X, instructing that a garment must not be machine-dried.
Its a documented meaning places it there: “…system issued by GINETEX, which has published care symbols since 1963”
A square outline, the GINETEX base symbol category covering all drying instructions on a garment care label.
Its description places it there: “…covering all drying instructions on a garment care label”
Percentages naming what a fabric is made of.
Its summary places it there: “…be cleaned, which is why it sits beside the care symbols rather than as a separate claim”
One or two bars under a care symbol, calling for a gentler process.
Its description places it there: “One or two bars under a care symbol, calling for a gentler process”
An outline of a hand-iron, the GINETEX base symbol for ironing instructions on a garment care label.
Its description places it there: “…symbol for ironing instructions on a garment care label”
A triangle with two diagonal stripes, permitting non-chlorine bleach.
Its summary places it there: “…bleach while forbidding chlorine. It is the care symbol most often misread, because the stripes look…”
A circle outline, the GINETEX base symbol for professional dry-cleaning or wet-cleaning instructions on a garment care label.
Its description places it there: “…dry-cleaning or wet-cleaning instructions on a garment care label”
Drops, bursts and a crossed drop on an iron's controls.
Its summary places it there: “…crossed drop must be selected for fabrics whose care label forbids steam, which is the connection between…”
A tub-shaped outline with a wavy water line, the GINETEX base symbol for washing instructions on a garment care label.
Its description places it there: “…symbol for washing instructions on a garment care label”
These carry an editorial context assigned during review that places them here.
Diagrams tracing the path of a cord through a knot.
A marking selecting a short wash before the main cycle.
A marking leaving the load standing in the final rinse water.
Abbreviations and numbers counting the stitches of each ring.
These belong to a system or a curated family that lives here. A laundry care symbol is met on a clothing label whether or not its own wording happens to say so.
Showing the 48 most firmly placed of 63. Browse by domain to see every symbol in the catalogue.
A continuous line of stitches worked backwards.
A plain weave with threads grouped in pairs.
A grainline set at forty-five degrees to the weave.
Looped stitches worked along a fabric edge.
A laid thread held down by small stitches.
Crossbars on a stem counting how many times the yarn is wrapped.
Two diagonal stitches crossing in a square.
Letters and shapes in a grid standing for thread colours.
A long narrow triangle showing fabric to be folded out.
A triangle crossed out, forbidding bleach of any kind.
A circle crossed out, forbidding professional dry cleaning.
An iron crossed out, forbidding ironing.
A washtub crossed out, forbidding washing in water altogether.
A twisted shape crossed out, forbidding wringing the garment.
A letter inside a circle naming the solvent a cleaner may use.
A horizontal line inside the drying square, meaning dry lying flat.
Diagonal stripes in the corner of the drying square, meaning keep out of sun.
Lines following a shape at even intervals outward.
Numbered arrows showing the order needle enters and leaves.
A warning about how cloth burns.
A rectangle with a central triangle and two corners.
A small filled dot standing for a wrapped knot.
A wavy line between two points to be drawn up.
An arrow saying which way the cloth runs.
A long double-headed arrow aligning a pattern piece with the fabric.
A square pieced from two triangles.
A hand dipped into a washtub, permitting washing by hand only.
Crossed diagonal stitches forming a zigzag band.
Dots inside an iron setting the maximum plate temperature.
A standardised chart alphabet readable without the language.
The rule that rows alternate direction as the work turns.
Brackets or a bold line marking the part that repeats.
A single anchored chain loop forming a petal.
Double lines showing where a piece may be adjusted.
A vertical line inside the drying square, meaning hang to dry.
Strips built outward from a central square.
A closed loop at the centre of a worked-in-the-round chart.
Numbers whose meaning depends on which national system.
A block of nine squares in a three-by-three grid.
A triangle or slit showing where two pieces must align.
A bracketed arrow meaning the piece is cut double.
A one-over-one-under grid, the simplest weave.
Arrows and lines showing which way fabric folds over.
A W inside a circle, permitting professional cleaning in water.
A square pieced from four triangles.
A named grid diagram specifying how a block is pieced.
Parallel stitches filling a shape solidly.
A structure with widely spaced, scattered interlacings.
If you can describe what you saw as well as where, say both: “winged skull on a gravestone” narrows a list of 77 to a handful.