Production for Print

Trapping	9

If you are out walking in the woods, a trap is something you accidentally put your foot into, resulting in considerable pain and a substantial delay to your journey. In printing, “trapping” refers to something very different—but if it is ignored or forgotten, it can also cause substantial delays while the job is reprinted, and the pain of increased costs as a result.

Trapping actually means allowing one color to very slightly overprint another where the edges of the two touch. As registration between the plates on a printing press is never quite perfect, a lack of trapping will probably result in a slight gap between the colors at some point. As the gap was not part of the original design, and as it will probably stand out ...