WHAT IS RISOGRAPH?
Risograph is a unique method of printmaking that produces vibrant prints with grainy, tactile texture (think: colorful newsprint). Imagine a photocopier that could produce screen prints, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of a risograph duplicator!
These small but mighty machines convert artwork into stencils that wrap around ink drums inside the printer. Ink is pushed through the drum and stencil and pressed onto paper as it passes through the machine.
Riso thrives on limited color palettes and does best with 1-4 colors.
Our favorite thing about risograph printing is that it’s environmentally friendly. It uses plant-based inks and 90% less power than similar printing methods. Follow us on Instagram to see our risograph duplicator in action.
HALFTONES
Part of the Risograph appeal is its signature grainy, lived-in look. The amount of grain will differ depending on the exact halftone translation. If you’re printing finely detailed work or photography, be sure to create your original design with a halftone screen. Still have questions? Reach out to us for a recommendation!
CMYK PRINTING
Offset prints with four ink colors: blue, fluorescent pink, sunflower, and black; our very own CMYK color palette.
Printing with these four colors allows you to print with a virtually unlimited color palette because Riso inks are semi-transparent and blend to create new colors when layered.
RESOURCE FOR FILE PREP:
*Spectrolite has options to edit the PSD file type in their settings, including CMYK + Spot Channels.
If you don’t have access to design software, we can handle CMYK color separation for you.
RISO QUIRKS:
COVERAGE, SMUDGING, & TRANSFER
Areas of artwork that include large fields of color may result in uneven coverage. While this isn’t 100% avoidable, we work hard to ensure all prints receive as even coverage as possible.
Riso inks are non-archival, behave similarly to newspaper ink, and can smudge if pressure is applied. More ink = higher possibility of smudging.
While Risograph prints are less likely to smudge the older they are, smudging is always a possibility. We recommend handling prints with gloves and/or freshly washed hands to prevent the distribution of natural skin oils onto your print. Additionally, prints using a high volume of ink have an increased risk of transfer, and should be stored independently of other prints.
ROLLER MARKS
Paper is fed through the Risograph with a rubber wheel, which applies pressure to the page. Fresh ink may leave a “roller mark” at the bottom center of a print, and it happens most often when a print utilizes dense ink coverage close to the paper feed edge. These marks can almost always be removed with a rubber eraser.
MISREGISTRATION
The nature of Risograph is highly individualized and therefore slightly imperfect. Some misregistration is likely to happen in every project, with up to 5mm shifts between prints due to factors such as machine movement, drum rotation, and press shift. It’s one of risograph’s defining quirks, and we encourage you to embrace the offset!
