Before the advent of computer aided design (CAD), drawings of woven textile patterns were translated by craftsmen onto special graph paper called point papers. It was these detailed point paper drawings that were then read by textile technicians who cut the weaving instruction cards that were placed onto the weaving looms.

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To allow the Card Cutters to clearly see colour changes and tiny details of small patterns, the Point paper designs were much bigger than the finished textile pattern showing at least one repeat or weave unit of the fabric to be woven.  The colours in the point paper designs weren't necessarily the real colours for the finished weave,  they were a code that told the Card Cutter what order the threads would pass through the loom. Although at the time these bright colours used were to help see the differences in the intricate designs under the murky light of the mill, these rediscovered archives nowadays are in themselves beautiful works of archive art.