Bleach symbols
Every bleach instruction on a tag is a triangle: open, striped with two diagonal lines, or crossed out. Three marks, three answers.
The triangle is the bleach slot on a care tag, and it is the only triangle on the tag — so if you have found one, you have found the bleach instruction. Empty, it allows any bleach, chlorine included. With two diagonal lines drawn inside, it narrows to non-chlorine bleach only, the oxygen or color-safe kind. Crossed out, it rules out bleach entirely.
Two things worth knowing before the list. The triangle is permission, not homework — “when needed” is part of every bleach instruction, and most loads never need any. And older tags, plus plenty made abroad, print the crossed-out triangle as a solid black shape instead of an outline. That is the same instruction, drawn the way that label printer drew it.
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Any bleach okay · open triangle
Any bleach is okay when you need it, chlorine included.
If you ignore it: No risk in skipping bleach — the triangle is permission, not an instruction.
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Non-chlorine bleach only · triangle with two diagonal lines
Only non-chlorine bleach — the oxygen or color-safe kind — and only when needed.
If you ignore it: Chlorine bleach strips color and can permanently yellow whites with elastic or resin finishes.
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Do not bleach · triangle crossed out
No bleach of any kind — not even the color-safe kind.
If you ignore it: Even oxygen bleach will shift the color or weaken the fiber the tag is protecting.
Questions people actually ask
What does the triangle on a care tag mean?
Bleach. An open triangle means any bleach is okay when you need it, chlorine included. Two diagonal lines inside it narrow that to non-chlorine bleach only, and a triangle with an X through it means no bleach of any kind.
What counts as non-chlorine bleach?
The oxygen-based products sold as color-safe or all-fabric bleach — usually a powder, sometimes a liquid, working by releasing oxygen in water rather than chlorine. They lift stains more slowly and are far easier on dye than chlorine bleach.
My tag shows a solid black triangle with a cross through it — is that different?
No. A filled black triangle with a cross is the same do-not-bleach instruction as the open crossed triangle. The solid version is an older and common non-US print style, chosen so the mark reads clearly on a small woven label, not a stronger warning.
There is no triangle on my tag at all. Can I bleach it?
Silence is not permission. A tag with no bleach symbol simply has not told you, so the careful reading is to skip bleach and treat the stain another way. If you decide to try anyway, test on an inside seam first — and remember the tag wins over any chart.
Holding a tag with several of these at once? Tap them into the decoder and get one plan.