Using Help | Contents | Index Back 350
Adobe Illustrator Help Producing Color Separations
Using Help | Contents | Index Back 350
Trapping with tints
When trapping two light-colored objects, the trap line may show through the darker of
the two colors, resulting in an unsightly dark border. For example, if you trap a light yellow
object into a light blue object, a bright green border is visible where the trap is created.
To prevent the trap line from showing through, you can specify a tint of the trapping color
(in this example, the yellow color) to create a more pleasing effect. Check with your print
shop to find out what percentage of tint is most appropriate given the type of press, inks,
paper stock, and so on being used.
Trapping type
Trapping type can present special problems. Avoid applying mixed process colors or tints
of process colors to type at small point sizes, because any misregistration can make the
text difficult to read. Likewise, trapping type at small point sizes can result in hard-to-read
type. As with tint reduction, check with your print shop before trapping such type. For
example, if you are printing black type on a colored background, simply overprinting the
type onto the background may be enough.
To trap type, you can add the stroke below the fill in the Appearance palette, and set the
stroke to overprint (or set it to Multiply blending mode).
Using the Trap command
The Trap command creates traps for simple objects by identifying the lighter artwork—
whether it’s the object or the background—and overprinting (trapping) it into the darker
artwork.
Note: The Trap command is only available when you are working on CMYK documents.
Function of Trap command
A. Area of overprint B. Area of knockout C. Background color D. Foreground color
You can apply the Trap command as a Pathfinder command or as an effect. For more infor-
mation on effects, see “
Using effects” on page 235. For instructions on using the Stroke
palette to create a trap with strokes on individual objects, see “
Trapping by overprinting”
on page 352.
A
B
CD
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