Ink trap

Not to be confused with Trap (printing).

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 outward and ruin the crisp edge.[1]

Ink traps are only needed for small point sizes and are usually only found on typefaces designed for printing on newsprint. 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 (original MicroPlus variant), Bell Centennial, Tang[2] and K2D.[3]

Related to ink traps are light traps,[4][5] which aim to improve the display of letterforms against the halation of cathode ray tube (CRT) displays. Light traps were developed in the late 1960s under the direction of Rudi Bass at the Graphic Arts Department of CBS News. To improve the legibility of the text in CBS's on-screen graphics, the department produced CBS News 36, a typeface with holes at the corners of the letterforms for light to bleed into.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ Heller, Steven; Pettit, Elinor (1998). Design dialogues. Allworth Communications, Inc. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-58115-007-0.
  2. ^ Haaparanta, Tomi (2004). "This is Tang!". Suomi Type Foundry. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  3. ^ "K2D Specimen". Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  4. ^ Cao, Yang (July 2021). The Research on the Impact of Visual Image Perception in a User Interface on Typeface Design. 2021 5th International Conference on Imaging, Signal Processing and Communications. IEEE. pp. 40–44. doi:10.1109/ICISPC53419.2021.00015. ISBN 978-1-6654-2425-7.
  5. ^ a b Bass, Rudi (1967). "The Development of CBS News 36". Visible Language. 1 (4): 357–367. ISSN 2691-5529. Archived from the original on 11 September 2024. PDF: original; archived.
  6. ^ "Delivering Typographic Detail On Screen: A Lesson from the Past". Print. 29 June 2016. Archived from the original on 17 March 2026. Retrieved 17 March 2026.


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