# Trapping

> Trapping is a small overlap between adjacent printed colours intended to hide gaps caused by registration variation.

Canonical: https://dielinemaker.com/glossary/trapping
Last updated: 2026-10-26

Artwork

## What it means in packaging

It is a prepress adjustment made for the inks, substrate and print process. It differs from bleed, which handles cutting variation at the finished edge. Applying arbitrary overlaps can produce visible dark borders.

## A practical example

A slight spread of one colour underneath a neighbouring colour can prevent a fine unprinted line when their positions vary.

## What to check

Agree who applies traps and which settings they use, so the artwork is not trapped twice.

## Use it in your project

- [Print checks and production exports](https://dielinemaker.com/learn/print-checks-and-exports)
- [Place artwork and manage layers](https://dielinemaker.com/learn/artwork-and-layers)

## Related terms

- [Bleed](https://dielinemaker.com/glossary/bleed) — Bleed is artwork extended beyond the intended cut boundary so small cutting variations do not expose an unprinted edge.
- [Overprint](https://dielinemaker.com/glossary/overprint) — Overprint is a print instruction to retain underlying colour when another object is printed over it.
- [Spot colour](https://dielinemaker.com/glossary/spot-color) — A spot colour is a named colour separation handled independently from process colour channels in a print file.

## Related

- [Packaging glossary](https://dielinemaker.com/glossary)