Corneal topography maps the curve of the cornea to detect conditions like astigmatism. It classifies patterns into round, oval, steepened areas, irregular, symmetric and asymmetric bowties, and other patterns. Rabinowitz studied topography patterns in 1996, identifying 11 main patterns including symmetric/asymmetric bowties that are prolate, oblate, or with/against the rule astigmatism. Regular astigmatism shows a bowtie pattern with an axis angle under 20 degrees, while irregular astigmatism has a bi-oblique bowtie with an axis angle over 20 degrees. Other patterns include mixed, triple, and horseshoe.