◆◆◆ BackgroundThe Risograph is a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly digital duplicator that creates unique prints by layering soy- and rice-based inks. I like to think of it as a cross between traditional screenprinting and Xerox. The machine itself looks very much like a run-of-the-mill copier you’d find in the corner of a dusty office, but the vibrant and unique prints it can create has drawn artists and designers to it like flies to honey. Risograph as an artistic medium is only a decade or two old, so it’s still somewhat niche and not very well known in the broader artistic sphere. With its ability to make many prints quickly and for relatively cheap, along with its imperfect and tactile aesthetic, Riso lends itself incredibly well to book- and zine-making, which is why it is heavily utilized in the world of art books, comics, DIY, and zines.
◆◆◆ How it WorksRisograph printing is comparable to screenprinting in that its vibrant inks are printed in layers by pushing liquid ink through a mesh screen, partially blocked by a stencil that contains the image information. While photoemulsion screenprinting requires the image to be only black and white/pre-bitmapped by the artist, the Riso has its own very fine bitmapping technology, so the image being scanned or sent to the machine can contain the full spectrum of grays—from 0% to 100% and anything in between.
◆◆◆ Printing ProcessFirst, this grayscale “original” is scanned on the glass top of the machine (or sent digitally, straight from a computer). Next, the image information is read and bitmapped by the machine, and a stencil is burned into special thermal paper creating what’s called a “master.” This stencil is then wrapped around a cylindrical ink drum inside the machine, and as paper passes through the Riso, the ink drum rolls, pushing ink through the drum’s screen and the freshly-applied master covering it, thus leaving an inked impression on the paper. Each ink color needs its own drum, and—when making a print with more than one color layer—the drum needs to be switched out, another master made, and the same paper fed once again through the machine.
◆◆◆ LimitationsThe max image area is 16.75 x 10.75". The max paper size is 12 x 18".
When printing double-sided, it’s best to avoid heaving inking on at least one of the sides to minimize smudging and paper jams.
Risograph ink is not lightfast and never fully “cures”—heavily inked areas are likely to smudge onto fingers when handling, long after the original print date. The ink washes off easily with handsoap and water and is non-toxic. This should be kept in mind when designing works for Riso that will be frequently handled, like the covers of zines/books.
Occasionally (especially if the image has high-density areas and more than one color layer) prints will exhibit roller marks and/or ink smudges. On un-inked areas of the final print, these artifacts can be lightened and partially eliminated by carefully using a soft pink or white eraser on them.
Flats of color may not print an even tone. Particularly with large, flat areas of color that have a high ink density, the appearance of what’s called a “tide mark” is typical. The ink density from print to print may also slightly vary throughout different prints from the same edition.
Misregistration is extremely common—it’s all but guaranteed on at least a handful of prints in any given Riso edition. Registration issues can be mitigated during design/separation by using “trapping” between color layers.
◆◆◆ FYIRisograph inks are largely transparent, which means they can be layered on top of one another to achieve a broader range of colors. When designing for Riso, it’s helpful to apply a “Multiply” blend mode to layers/objects of different ink swatch colors; this will visually approximate how multiple Riso colors might look when overprinted.
◆◆◆ Our Ink Colors
Below is a list of the 19 ink colors we currently run at Martian Press. The hex codes and Pantone colors listed alongside them are approximate, as Riso inks do not conform exactly to any color standards. The codes are sourced directly from the Riso community resource website, Stencil Wiki. Alongside this list, we’ve included scans of each individual color swatch from the Martian Press Swatchbook to further illustrate how these inks look when printed. However, the way that ink colors appear in person—as well as in combination with one another and/or on different paper stocks—may vary.
BubblegumHex: #F984CA | Pantone: 231 U
Fluorescent PinkHex: #FF48B0 | Pantone: 806 U
ScarletHex: #F65058 | Pantone: 185 U
OrangeHex: #FF6C2F | Pantone: ORANGE 021 U
Fluorescent OrangeHex: #FF7477 | Pantone: 805 U
SunflowerHex: #FFB511 | Pantone: 116 U
YellowHex: #F7FF00 | Pantone: 803 U
Light LimeHex: #E3ED55 | Pantone: 387 U
Kelly GreenHex: #67B346 | Pantone: 368 U
Light TealHex: #009DA5 | Pantone: 320 U
MintHex: #82D8D5 | Pantone: 324 U
AquaHex: #5EC8E5 | Pantone: 367 U
BlueHex: #0078BF | Pantone: 3005 U
CornflowerHex: #62A8E5 | Pantone: 292 U
VioletHex: #9D7AD2 | Pantone: 265 U
MidnightHex: #435060 | Pantone: 296 U
BlackHex: #000000 | Pantone: BLACK U
Light GrayHex: #88898A | Pantone: 424 U
WhiteHex: #FFFFFF | Pantone: N/A
*Note: WHITE is not truly opaque, as you can see in the scan of its swatch printed on black paper. White Riso ink is useful primarily as a base layer for "lifting" other colors
Ready to get a Risograph print job started with us? Request a quote using the form below, or shoot us an email at martianpress.riso@gmail.com.
Prefer to come by and print it yourself? Consider booking open studio time with us, or (if you’re new to Riso) learn how to print at one of our monthly workshops.
Keep in mind that if you want a color to print at 100% density, the corresponding element in your grayscale print file should be 100% black. This means that if you create your design in full color, simply turning each layer to grayscale will not be adequate for generating print-ready files. For example: an image with bright yellow shapes set to grayscale without further adjustments turns those shapes roughly 25% gray. When that file is sent to the Riso, the machine will create a stencil for the yellow drum based on that light gray value it reads in the file, thereby printing the yellow ink at 25% density instead of full 100% density, resulting in a much much lighter yellow than what was intended in the original full-color design.
If all of this is making your head spin, we do offer color separation/print prep services! We charge a $50/hourly design fee if you aren’t able to provide us with the seperated files ready to print. However, if you feel like—with some guidance—you could do the separations yourself, we are happy to answer any questions, address any confusion, and offer thorough file prep advice free of charge.
When placing a print order, please remember that the medium of Risograph is charmingly imperfect. Misregistration and skewing will happen to at least some of your prints, along with instances of other marks, artifacts, inconsistencies, and oddities. In my opinion, these quirks are all part of what makes Riso printing so unique. At Martian Press, we take pride in the quality of our work and try to minimize these eccentricities as much as possible, but please be aware that your print/zine order may still have some naturally occurring imperfections.
◆◆◆ Further Reading & Riso-urcesStencil Wiki — helpful Riso equipment information and maintenance/printing advice, global atlas of Risographers/presses, list of upcoming fairs/fests
[color/shift] — Riso color profiles for Photoshop by There There Now
Spectrolite — Riso color separation app
North American Risograph Conference (NARC) — biennial Risograph conference