# Designing your own punch card

[![punchcards.jpg](https://bookstack.hku.nl/uploads/images/gallery/2026-01/scaled-1680-/punchcards.jpg)](https://bookstack.hku.nl/uploads/images/gallery/2026-01/punchcards.jpg)*Two pre-designed punch cards and one blank punch card*

You can use pre-made punch cards or create your own design using a blank punch card. With a special tool, you'll punch holes in the blank card. Make sure to pre-plan your design, as mistakes are easily made. Our tips for planning your design:

- Grid paper and a pencil
- Excel (scale the cells to be square)
- *Adacad*, an open source program for weaving. As weaving and knitting design both use binary code, you can use the program for this purpose as well. Link: [https://adacad-4-1.web.app/](https://adacad-4-1.web.app/). Steps: 
    - Select "add draft" on the left top, enter the amount of vertical under "warps" and the amount of horizontal rows under "weft".
    - Click on the draft that appears, select "draft" at the top of the page.
    - Under "loom type", on the left of the page, select "jacquard". Click on a square in your draft now and it turns black.
    - Make your design. Save it by pressing the house icon --> "export as" --> the file type you want.

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##### Reading the punch card:  
  


[![punch card info.jpg](https://bookstack.hku.nl/uploads/images/gallery/2026-01/scaled-1680-/punch-card-info.jpg)](https://bookstack.hku.nl/uploads/images/gallery/2026-01/punch-card-info.jpg)