Trapping is all about keeping your printed colors aligned and clean, even when the press isn’t perfect. We’ve already talked about spread (expanding the lighter color) and choke (shrinking the darker color) but when it comes to small text, especially on high-contrast backgrounds, things get a bit more delicate. For example, imagine tiny white text on a solid black background, or thin black text on a bright yellow label. That color contrast looks amazing on screen but in print, it’s super sensitive to even tiny shifts in alignment.
Normally, spreading a light background color into dark text can help fill in any gaps caused by misregistration. But with small text, spreading the background even a fraction of a point can swall thin strokes, reduce legibility, or make the text look fuzzy. Choking the dark text inward can reduce the chance of a visible halo around lettersbut if overdone, it can thin out the text too much, cause parts of letters to disappear, or make the type look uneven.
For small text in high-contrast settings, the goal is maximum legibility with minimal distortion. You should avoid trapping small text if possible, especially under 8pt. You should also use overprint for small black text on light backgrounds as it avoids all the risk of spread/choke. If you do need to use trapping, you should apply very minimal spread or choke and prioritize sharpness over safety. If your text is black, use 100% K ink only—no CMY mix. That way it can overprint cleanly, there is no risk of color misregistration, and you can avoid muddy third colors.