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An ink trap is a feature of certain typefaces designed for printing in small sizes. At an ink trap, the corners or details are removed from the letterforms. When the type is printed, ink naturally spreads into the removed area. Without ink traps, the excess ink would soak outwards and ruin the crisp edge.
Ink traps are only needed for small point sizes and are usually only found on typefaces designed for printing on
An ink trap is a feature of certain typefaces designed for printing in small sizes. At an ink trap, the corners or details are removed from the letterforms. When the type is printed, ink naturally spreads into the removed area. Without ink traps, the excess ink would soak outwards and ruin the crisp edge.
Ink traps are only needed for small point sizes and are usually only found on typefaces designed for printing on newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...
. Fonts of this kind are applicable for classifieds or telephone books. Typefaces with ink traps may be offered in versions without them for display on screen or at larger sizes.
Typefaces featuring ink traps include Retina, Bell Centennial
Bell Centennial is a sans-serif typeface in the industrial or grotesque style designed by Matthew Carter in the period 1975–1978. The typeface was commissioned by AT&T as a proprietary type to replace their then current directory typeface B ...
, and Tang.
References
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