What is 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 accepts that ink.

However, in the era of prepress software, the term came to refer to compensation for misregistration that was traditionally known as "chokes and spreads". Misregistration causes gaps or white-space on the final printed work. Correcting this involves creating overlaps or underlaps of objects during the print process.