> we could have something a little more self-explanatory than triangle = bleach, circle = dry clean. The iron symbol is perfectly clear, for instance.
I think you (and others) are focusing on the wrong thing here. Are you likely to bleach your black t-shirts? Are you likely to dry clean them?
No, certainly not, these are special, rather uncommon processes that are unlikely to be part of one's daily washing routing, and therefore it doesn't really matter if they're not immediately obvious.
The washing and ironing temperature, as well as the hand wash symbol, are the ones that actually matter and they're also quite obvious. The tumble dry symbols are maybe less obvious and common enough today, they probably seemed like they were one of the less common processes back in the 70's in France (where tumble driers are only just beginning to be common today). I'm pretty sure you should ignore the "no tumble dry" symbols most of the time anyway if your tumble drier is more recent than the 70's. That's what I do.
So if you just ignore the symbols you don't understand, in most cases and for most people, everything will be fine and you will simply know what maximum temperature to wash your clothes.
