About Us
Behind every innovative textile creation is a passionate global team. Meet the Pointcarre family, from our headquarters in France to New York, and through our trusted partners in over 120 countries, we're dedicated to making your design journey extraordinary.
Interested in joining our worldwide network? Let's talk!
We are inventors
"Always on the lookout for simpler processes in your activity"
Freddy Brault, Pointcarre CEOWe continually provide designers with all the digital tools necessary to design a product keeping in mind both the history of the production process as well as the current advances in technology.
For over 40 years, Pointcarre has been a reference in textile CAD software, offering a complete solution for Jacquard and dobby weaving, digital and rotary printing, knitting, tufting and 3D mapping. Based in France and strategically present in New York City, Pointcarre operates in more than 120 countries through a vast network of partners.
Our modular software integrates seamlessly into a single application, compatible with both Mac and Windows. This makes Pointcarre the only textile design software that runs natively on both platforms. Combined with our commitment to innovation and simplicity, this allows our customers to optimize their creativity and productivity.
Our History
Pointcarre was born from a passion for weaving and a fascination with early computing. The story begins in the 1970s in Brittany, France, where Olivier Masson, a self-taught weaver, started drawing textile patterns on graph paper. Each square on that paper, which he called a "point carré" (literally, a "square dot"), would later give its name to the software.
While working in Morocco, Olivier Masson designed a hand-knotted carpet using animal motifs drawn on graph paper. Each square represented a cluster of 6 × 6 knots, exactly 1 cm × 1 cm. This "point carré" became the foundational concept of the software: every textile pattern, no matter how complex, is ultimately composed of small colored squares arranged on a grid.
Back in Brittany, Olivier Masson discovered programming through a fellow weaver, Henri Lazennec. Starting with the cheapest computer available at the time, a ZX 81, he wrote his first drawing program and his first weaving program. What began as a curiosity quickly became an obsession: the ability to design, erase and redraw textile patterns on screen was transforming what used to take hours on graph paper into minutes on a monitor.
Ported to Apple II, the software merged drawing and weaving into a single graphical application controlled entirely by mouse. Designers could draw directly in the weave draft diagrams (threading, treadling, tie-up) and see the fabric simulation update in real time. This was the first textile weaving software to offer a fully graphical, mouse-driven interface. The software was presented commercially for the first time at the Salon Indigo in Lille, France, in September 1985.
Olivier Masson and François Roussel, a fellow Breton weaver who had been promoting the software across France and Europe, founded Pointcarre SARL on December 1, 1987 in Rennes. That same year, the software was ported to the Apple II GS, bringing color visualization of woven fabrics for the first time.
Pointcarre was ported to Macintosh in the late 1980s, and a Windows version was introduced in 1999. From that point on, Pointcarre became the only textile CAD software to run natively on both Mac and PC, a distinction it still holds today. The customer base expanded from artisan weavers to fashion houses, home furnishing manufacturers and textile design schools worldwide.
Pointcarre acquired Monarch Design System, strengthening its presence in the American market. The New York office became the hub for serving clients in the US fashion and home textile industries.
Freddy Brault became CEO, bringing a commercial and methodical approach to the company. Under his leadership, Pointcarre expanded its capabilities in digital and rotary textile printing, developed the Pointcarre Academy e-learning platform, and built a worldwide network of partners covering more than 120 countries.
Pointcarre released a comprehensive suite of tools for the print industry, covering digital printing, rotary printing and screen printing. Color separation, repeat design, ICC profiling and direct-to-fabric workflows were all integrated into the same single application alongside the weaving and knitting modules.
The Pointcarre Jacquard software was used by the weaving studio Dash & Miller to create the Game of Thrones Tapestry, a 90-meter hand-woven Jacquard piece commissioned by HBO and Tourism Ireland. The software converted the illustrators' artwork into weave files, defining four color palettes and assigning double-cloth satin structures to each design zone. The finished tapestry, longer than the Bayeux Tapestry, was displayed at the Ulster Museum in Belfast and later at the Bayeux Museum in Normandy.
Pointcarre became the first textile CAD software to integrate artificial intelligence directly into the design workflow. Design Maker generates textile patterns at production resolution, in seamless repeat, using an influence image to stay true to the designer's style. Unlike generic AI image generators, this tool is built specifically for textile production. Repeat Maker automatically converts any motif into a seamless repeat pattern. AI Upscaling enhances pattern resolution without loss of quality. These three AI features remain exclusive to Pointcarre as of 2026.
Pointcarre launched a new tufting and carpet design module, developed to replace the legacy APSO software that had been discontinued. Built in partnership with leading tufting machine manufacturers (CMC, Tuftco, Vandewiele, Modra), the module features the most realistic tufted carpet simulation available, using 3D yarn models created in collaboration with Aquafil. Through an exclusive partnership with CMC, Pointcarre is the only CAD software to offer Colorpoint simulation for tufting. This marks Pointcarre's entry into the wall-to-wall carpet and flooring industry.