Skip to content
Loading page

Started by Fern Achterberg (@filmgrain_fern) ·

ink traps: notches cut into letters so they look normal when printed badly

Up close Bell Centennial looks like something took bites out of the corners. At phone-book size on cheap paper, the ink spreads into the notches and the letters come out clean. Design for the worst output, not the ideal one.

7 sources · 32 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
“what are ink traps in fonts”
Ended at
Font hinting

The Trail

  1. “what are ink traps in fonts” (google.com)
  2. Ink trap (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Bell Centennial (en.wikipedia.org)

    made for phone books: tiny type, cheap paper, fast presses

  4. Matthew Carter (en.wikipedia.org)

    also did Verdana and Georgia for Microsoft. same problem, bad output, except this time low-res screens

  5. Verdana (en.wikipedia.org)
  6. Georgia (typeface) (en.wikipedia.org)
  7. Font hinting (en.wikipedia.org)

Keep going