[haileys]

It's strange that on a site like Hacker News people are so averse to learning new things. We seem to have no problem learning other kinds of symbol languages. These are standard symbols - you can search Google for "laundry symbols" to find a key

[tyingq]

It's not just the HN crowd. My non techie spouse isn't a fan either. It's also a meme. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/63/47/c3/6347c34b1ac9f34e3a27eb36d...

[Spooky23]

The audience for the symbols are people who do laundry for a living.

Symbols that you never use aren't very useful when all you really need to know is "do not dry", "do not bleach", "wash with like colors". It's really not that big of a deal to put a tag written in English and Spanish to the US, or in French to France, etc.

[peterburkimsher]

My girlfriend works in the fashion industry in Taiwan. Designers in the US make an artistic drawing of a dress. She converts it to a Gerber file using CAD software. The Gerbers get sent to factories in China or Vietnam, who make prototypes and send those to Taiwan for testing. When approved, thousands are ordered and shipped directly from the factories to Macy's or JCPenny in the US.

When artists use English, CAD designers use Traditional Chinese, and factory staff use Simplified Chinese or Vietnamese, and consumers use every language - there's a need for a standard symbol. You have a good point about dry cleaning services too!

The difficult part is that the people through this international supply chain can't type these symbols in emails, or search for them in databases. That's why a Unicode code point should be assigned.

[photojosh]

That clothing design and production process sounds fascinating. A search on some of the terms doesn't seem to return anything useful... do you have any good reads or videos for an outsider to understand a typical workflow?

[peterburkimsher]

I just learned it from her directly, and was surprised when she mentioned Gerber files. I used those for PCB design, and it's the same file format that they use for clothes!

This article looks like it has a general summary:

https://sewport.com/tips-on-starting-a-clothing-line-from-43...

This is not her company, but a job description for a similar role (you'll need to translate from Chinese):

https://www.104.com.tw/job/5cuv8?jobsource=jolist_c_relevanc...

[photojosh]

That general summary was great, and plenty of jumping-off points. And the knowing the terminology helps. Thanks.

I'm with you, it bears uncanny parallels to the PCB design workflow. Not just the Gerbers, but the component/fabric selection, simulation, design drawings, etc.

[aasasd]

HN folks complain all day that their computers and phones changed since the 90s.