trapping

[tangerinewoman]

Hi there

Can anyone explain to me in simple terms what trapping is in Quark.

For example, I have pale blue writing over a very dark TIFF. What should I set the trapping to? Presumably knockout? But what does "auto amount +" and "auto amount -" do?

Cheers all
(using quark 6.5 on latest Mac OSX)

 

[IMacQuarker]

Hi tangerinewoman
Trapping is done to allow for press registration being slightly off.
I think in your case you would use Knockout.
If you have a blue circle printing over a black background the black will print with a white circle (if you are printing on white paper) smaller than the blue which will over print. I think the difference in size is determined by the trapping value.
Open Quark 6.5 and click on Help then type in Trapping and hit enter and you should get about 25 explanations about trapping.
Hope this helps
IMacQuarker

 

[RegistrationMark]

Most printers have a trapping system in place and need no trapping inside of the application. In my experience they actually ask for untrapped files. Trapping is set in the Preferences. I set the traps to 0 for Indeterminate, and 0 for Knockout limit, and click the Process Trap button off.
Then if you need to you can then use the Trap Info Palette to set each objects trap. You always want to trap the lighter color to the darker. So in your example, you would select the blue writing, in the trap info palette next to where it says "text" pull the drop-down menu to Custom. type in .25pt. This will "spread" the type out into the bkgd tiff.
If you had dark type on a light Bkgd, then -.25pt would be correct as it would "choke" the bkgd tiff into the dark type.
The auto amount + and - button, traps objects to the specs set in Preferences.
I believe Quark has a default of .144 in. The "+" spreads objects out, the "-" chokes bkgds into the selected object.
Hope this is helpful
Mark

 

[tangerinewoman]

Cheers guys, very helpful. Can't believe I've got this far as a designer and haven't had to deal with it before... (don't tell the boss).