Analysis of the abundance patterns in the neutral ISM in the LMC and determination of the total metallicity and overall strength of depletion. The variables and coefficients of the linear relation are defined in Eqs. (1)–(5), where the y-intercept gives the [M/H]_tot and the slope of the relation gives the strength of depletion [Zn/Fe]_fit. If Ti and another α-element are constrained (i.e. for the golden sample, labelled ‘g’), the slope of the linear fit is determined only from the α-elements, which are marked in green, excluding O. The resulting fits are shown by the green dashed curves, and their slopes are then fixed. The fit for the metallicity uses this slope and is determined by the Fe-group elements Fe, Ni, and Cr (blue solid curves), excluding Zn and P from the fit. For the non-golden sample all the metals are fit together linearly, but the α-elements and Mn are excluded. The error bars show the 1σ uncertainties on the metal columns. The deviations from the linear fit are mostly due to α-element enhancement (see Sect. 4.2). The uncertainties shown on the y-axis are the formal statistical errors on the column densities. The uncertainty on N(H)_tot is shown by the error bar on the top left; it affects all points systematically and is included in the uncertainty of the [M/H]_tot.