Design Nomenclature / Type

Ink trap

Also called ink trap, notch

A notch cut out of a join — where shoulder meets stem, or at a tight crotch — so that ink spreading on absorbent paper fills it rather than blotting the join shut. A production countermeasure for hot-metal and newsprint conditions that no longer obtain at high resolution.

A capital M set large on its own body, with leaders to the two acute interior angles a punchcutter would notch: the vertex where the diagonals meet, and the join where the first diagonal meets the left upright. Georgia was cut for the screen and has no traps, so no notch appears at either — the figure marks the sites rather than showing a face that uses them.

In practice

Now mostly worn as a style. That's fine, but a trap drawn to be seen at 96px is not doing the job the name describes, and calling it a trap at display size is decoration wearing engineering's clothes.

How this term connects

ApexBracketCounterHairlineHintingShoulderInk trap
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