Standard Textile Care Symbols

[spixi]

Proposal for new characters

Name	Description
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB	washing, shows a tub
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH THIRTY DEGREES CELSIUS	US and Canadian variant comes with one heavy dot
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH FORTY DEGREES CELSIUS	US and Canadian variant comes with two heavy dots
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH FIFTY DEGREES CELSIUS	US and Canadian variant comes with two three dots
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH SIXTY DEGREES CELSIUS	US and Canadian variant comes with four heavy dots
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH SEVENTY DEGREES CELSIUS	US and Canadian variant comes with five heavy dots
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH NINETY DEGREES CELSIUS
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH NINETY-FIVE DEGREES CELSIUS	US and Canadian variant comes with six heavy dots
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH HAND	hand washing
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WASHING TUB WITH TAP	cold washing
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARE	drying, usually only appears crossed-out
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARE WITH HORIZONTAL BAR	flat dry
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARE WITH HORIZONTAL BARS	flat dry when wet, European variant has two bars, US and Canadian variant has three bars
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARE WITH BOW IN THE TOP	dry on clothes line
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARE WITH VERTICAL BAR	dry hanging, e. g. on a hanger
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARE WITH VERTICAL BARS	drip dry, European variant has two bars, US and Canadian variant has three bars
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL SQUARED CIRCLE	machine drying, shows a drier
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL IRON	shows an iron
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL IRON WITH CROSSED OUT STEAM	do not steam iron
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL WRING OUT	shows a cloth which is wringed out, usually only appears crossed-out
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL CIRCLE	chemical cleaning
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A	all cleaning agents
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F	hydrocarbon solvent
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P	tetrachloroethene
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W	wet cleaning
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL TRIANGLE	bleaching with chlorine or oxygen
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL TRIANGLE WITH CL	bleaching with chlorine
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL TRIANGLE WITH DOUBLE SOLIDUS	bleaching with oxygen
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING HEAVY DOT	low temperature
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING DOUBLE HEAVY DOT	medium temperature
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING TRIPLE HEAVY DOT	high temperature
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING CROSS	do not (wash/iron/bleach/dry/dry-clean), may fill the washing tub, triangle, square, circle or the dryer’s circle black
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING BAR BELOW	gentle
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING DOUBLE BAR BELOW	very gentle, the bars may appear side-by-side or one below the other
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING TRIPLE BAR BELOW	wool program (?)
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING SOLIDUS IN THE TOP LEFT CORNER	dry in the shadow, European variant has one solidus, US and Canadian variant has two solidi
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING TANGENT IN THE TOP LEFT CORNER	short cycle
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING TANGENT IN THE TOP RIGHT CORNER	reduced moisture
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING TANGENT IN THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER	low heat
TEXTILE CARE SYMBOL COMBINING TANGENT IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER	no steam finishing

Examples

Wash Care Symbols M54

The font Wash Care Symbols M54 has already implemented textile care symbols. However, they are encoded in the C0 Controls and Basic Latin block.

Standard References

• How to propose emojis to Unicode
• How to propose other additions or changes to Unicode (required form, email address: docsubmit＠unicode.org)
• Unicode document submission form

[Crissov]

I think I remember having seen a failed proposal to encode some of them , will need to check.

[spixi]

@Crissov Do you mean that mail here?
http://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2003-m06/0274.html

[Crissov]

This could very well be it. I think I was subscribed to the mailing list back then.

[nbeaver]

Note also ISO 3758, which dates back to 1991.

[PabloReszczynski]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but aren't these symbols trademarked? Would font makers, or Unicode Inc. require a license to reproduce these symbols?

The five care symbols are protected trademarks in most countries. They may not be reproduced, issued or used without a special license agreement with GINETEX, co-owner of the trademarks together with COFREET. This Intellectual Property license agreement commits companies to use the symbols correctly at all times.

Source

[8HoLoN]

There is a lack of the unit in the name column : THIRTY DEGREES => THIRTY DEGREES CELSIUS

[spixi]

@PabloReszczynski Good point, but I am pretty sure that the glyphs do not have enough threshold of originality for a copyright. Regarding trademark right: GINETEX only has a trademark on the combination of the five care symbols in one picture and this also only applies for certain Nizza classes (e. g. leaflets about textile care, marketing and consulting services, but not for the textiles themselves).

Note that the protectability of the textile care symbols may vary between different countries!

For example, for Germany I found:
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/register/3020090190313/DE (Nizza classes 35, 37, 41, 42, 45)
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/register/3020180219248/DE (Nizza classes 9, 37, 40, 41, 45)
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/registerIR?AKZ=849319 (covers all kinds of textile products, non-textile labels, information and consulting services and software, not protectable in Germany, but possibly in other European countries)
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/registerIR?AKZ=849320 (covers all kinds of textile products, non-textile labels, information and consulting services and software, not protectable in Germany, but possibly in other European countries)

@8HoLoN The glyphs are also lacking a unit. Character descriptions should match the glyph appearance and not add additional semantics.

[8HoLoN]

@spixi I strongly disagree, unit is crucial, the fact that the glyph does not contain the C is not relevant because some of glyph does not include ° character meanwhile the name includes Degrees. So, to get full meaning you should get the unit.

[spixi]

@spixi I strongly disagree, unit is crucial, the fact that the glyph does not contain the C is not relevant because some of glyph does not include ° character meanwhile the name includes Degrees. So, to get full meaning you should get the unit.

@8HoLoN I understand, that's a good argument. I found another reference sheet which also uses the dotted annotation used in the USA and Canada. It also has four additional symbols for dry cleaning, I have never seen before. They are also included in Wash Care Symbols M54. Does someone know if they are also part of ISO 3758 or any national standard?

[spixi]

I added the Celsius and also the four tangents for additional dry-cleaning instructions.

[idontusenumbers]

A lot of these seem like a good match for ligatures or modifiers; having a code point per temperature seems unsustainable/unnecessary.

[spixi]

A lot of these seem like a good match for ligatures or modifiers; having a code point per temperature seems unsustainable/unnecessary.

The temperature values are fixed and have different representations (some countries use numeric values, others use dots).