the.com/fine print
Where companies legally confess what the headline was lying about.
means The small, dense text in a contract or ad that spells out the limits, exceptions, and obligations the big bold headline conveniently skips.
from Literal before it was figurative: in print shops, 'fine print' meant typeset in a small font size to cram more text into less space — originally just a practical printing term. Advertisers and contract-drafters realized that shrinking the type was a handy way to shrink the reader's attention too, and by the 20th century 'the fine print' had become shorthand for the clauses nobody reads but everybody is bound by.
- readership rate
- roughly 1 in 10 people actually read it
- designed for
- skimmability's opposite, on purpose
- legal function
- shifts blame from seller to your inattention