I am attempting to manually trap a 5 color job in Illustrator. I am pretty happy with the results with the exception of some outlining of type that is not giving sharp inside corners. Attached are two samples, one with the overprint stroke turned on and one with the stroke turned off. It's only a half point stroke but is noticeable in the inside corners of the 'N'. These letters are 3/4" tall and not a lot on the sheet, but is there a way to make that inside join into a single anchor point rather than two? I thought about making a compound path of the type and the background to create a knockout behind the yellow letter, then choke the knockout. Any thoughts?

As an added comment, is the trap option in Pathfinder fairly reliable? Yea or nay...

Rick, go through the trapping tutorial. It will really help you with AI files. Not just in traps, but a general understanding of how the tools work.

http://50.115.34.36/index.php?spage=Trapping_Tutorial

Hey Joe, the links for the tutorial are lost. Is this a new forum feature?

Yep. The tutorial had too many steps. Do it again. 

Riiiight. :laugh:

  are you talking about? It is working for me.

Here's what I see....

Oh, the links? It seems there is not an actual link in that article to the zip files.

Do you still have the zips? Not sure what happened to them. I can't find them anywhere on the web server and I copied everything from the old host.

Quote from: Joe on February 09, 2012, 12:53:53 PMOh, the links? It seems there is not an actual link in that article to the zip files.

Do you still have the zips? Not sure what happened to them. I can't find them anywhere on the web server and I copied everything from the old host.

I think so, let me look.

Here are the original files.... I can't find Part 2 of the answers, where I explain the method. I must have them at home somewhere.

I've added the links to the trapping tutorial but they will not work until the domain gets moved to the new host. Here are links that will work in the meantime...

http://50.115.34.36//Tutorial/TrapExercise.ai.zip

http://50.115.34.36//Tutorial/TrapExercise_Answers.ai.zip

I'll see about getting the answers for the rest while we're at it.

Quote from: Earendil on February 09, 2012, 11:25:56 AMYep. The tutorial had too many steps. Do it again. 

Fine with me. Gets rid of the nasties.

Quote from: gnubler on February 09, 2012, 02:52:31 PM

Quote from: Earendil on February 09, 2012, 11:25:56 AMYep. The tutorial had too many steps. Do it again. 

Fine with me. Gets rid of the nasties.

It does have that effect.