A thin film electromagnetic head has an inductive transducer with a ferromagnetic pole layer terminating adjacent a media-facing surface at a pole tip surface. The pole layer has side surfaces each having an end region that meets the pole tip surface, the end regions increasingly separated with increasing distance from the pole tip surface. Having a pole layer that is tapered to the point at which it meets the pole tip surface channels flux more efficiently for writing on-track as opposed to off-track. Such a tapered pole tip can be formed for a pair of pole layers separated by a submicron nonferromagnetic gap, or for a single perpendicular writing pole layer.