Trap (printing)

In printing, trap expresses the degree to which ink already printed on a substrate accepts another layer printed on top of it compared to how well the substrate (e.g., paper) accepts that ink.

However, in the era of prepress software, the term came to refer to compensation for misregistration (when two layers of ink are not perfectly aligned) that was traditionally known as "chokes and spreads". Misregistration causes gaps or white-space on the final printed work. Correcting this involves creating overlaps (spreads) or underlaps (chokes) of objects during the print process.