Laundry symbol

While there are internationally recognized standards for the care labels and pictograms, their exact use and form differ by region.

[5][6] The inclusion of care symbols on garments made or sold in Canada has always been voluntary; only fabric content labels are mandatory (since 1972).

[7][8] American Cleaning institute developed and published their guide to fabric care symbols.

[9] Additional textile care labelling systems have been developed for Australia, China, and Japan.

[6] Worldwide, all of these systems tend to use similar pictograms or labelling to convey laundry care instructions.

[10] As of 2021[update], the pictograms are not encoded in Unicode standards, because these symbols are not in the public domain across various countries, and are copyrighted.

The symbols are protected and their use is required to comply with the license conditions; incorrect labelling is prohibited.

A stylized washtub is shown, and the number in the tub means the maximum wash temperature (degrees Celsius).

Laundry symbols logo by GINETEX
Laundry care symbols with instructions in Japanese. The four symbols shown indicate that the garment must not be washed in water, must not be bleached, may be ironed only with a protective pressing cloth, and must be dry cleaned.
A poster from a laundromat in Beckley, West Virginia, that lists many of the common laundering instruction icons found on garment tags