Risograph

Above: Ryan Putnam, "NOPE" "NO" "NAH" 11" x 14" each (2019) Risograph

RISO-PRINTING: AN OVERVIEW – Printed Matter, Inc.

The Risograph – a plain-looking, clunky machine first released in Japan in 1986 by the Riso Kagaku Corporation – was initially developed as an alternative to other widespread copying processes. Marketed to churches, offices and schools, the Risograph offered a high-quality, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly option ideal for large-volume printing.

As an office standard the Risograph lost out to the photocopier, but the possibilities of riso-printing were adopted by a generation of artists and independent publishers who would give the machine new purpose. Working with the strengths and limitations of the technology, artists began creating posters, zines and artists’ books that embraced a lo-fi, pixelated aesthetic and allowed for endless experimentation with color, saturation and registration.

The quality of a Risograph print is somewhere between a photocopy and screen print – and like a screen print the image originates through a stencil duplication process. The artwork is scanned or transferred by computer to the machine, which then burns it onto a thin plastic sheet. This creates a ‘master’ copy, which gets wrapped around a drum and rotated at high speed so that the ink is pushed through the screen and onto the paper.

TECHNIQUE BASICS

HOW DOES THE RISO MF9450 WORK?
It’s kind of like a combination of screen printing, stencil printing, and photocopying. Each screen is made from banana paper and the printing process itself is highly energy efficient— generating only a minimum amount of biodegradable waste. The soy based inks do not contain a drying agent so will never dry completely.

MASTER MAKING MODE
The machine burns the original artwork for each color onto a roll of special master paper and attaches the master sheet to an ink cylinder.

PRINTING MODE
The cylinder rotates as paper is passed through the machine, making a print impression on each sheet.

PRINTABLE AREA
• Max. Printing Area: 11 15/32” x 16 23/32”
• Min. Printing area: 4” x 6”
• The Riso can’t print all the way to the edge
• Consider grouping smaller prints together on one master, and trimming them after printing. This saves paper, master material and time.

PAPER
Paper: Choosing Ideal Stocks for Riso – Stencil.wiki
• Uncoated paper only! No coated, no glossy, no plastic!
• Minimum weight: 12 lb. (46g/m²) Maximum weight 110 lb. (210g/m²).
• Very thick or very thin stock can cause problems.
• Paper with a bit of “tooth” or texture absorbs the ink better than really smooth paper
• Check out the paper stock at French Paper or Lewis Paper

COLOR SEPERATIONS
The most straightforward way to prepare Riso artwork is to make a black & white or grayscale original for each ink color.

PREPARING ARTWORK
"THINK IN SHADES OF GREY"
When you scan a grayscale original:
• 100% black = 100% ink density for that color
• Grays are printed at a lighter density, and there are settings to adjust the look on the touchscreen BASIC > PAGE: Optimize for the type of original (line, photo, etc.)

FUNCTION > PROCESS: Settings for halftone dots
• Inks are semi-transparent, so they can be printed on top of each other to create more color options.
• Use the ‘multiply’ blend mode in photoshop to see an approximation of how your design might look in print.

The value can also be shifted by:
• Adjusting “Contrast” on the touch screen before scanning a master
• Adjusting “Ink Density” on the machine between prints

LOWERING THE RANGE
• Sometimes 100% black is too much ink. You can still get solid ink coverage around 60% gray.
• This might mean designing with black and lowering everything’s opacity to 60% gray.

THE MUDDY MIDDLE
• Riso prints tend to not have a lot of contrast in the middle of the value range, and midtones can get lost.
• Typically, the lighter grays need to be lower than about 30%

TEXT
• Text should be only on one layer of the printed design, or it will be blurry
• For best results, make sure any body text (12pt or smaller) is set to registration black in Illustrator or InDesign – even if you’re not printing using black ink
• If the Riso knows it’s printing text it will preserve sharpness and ensure a higher quality print.
• We recommend not using Photoshop to set type, as this means it is rasterized and no longer seen by the machine as text.
• Legibility of text deteriorates drastically at lower opacity, so avoid printing body text or important information in pale colors – save that for large titles or decorative text.
• Avoid using ‘knockout’ or white text, as the riso isn’t reading the text but rather the area around the text, so it’s not as sharp.
• We don’t recommend using white text on two-color prints as these will not line up perfectly, meaning it will not be very readable in print.

IDEAL RISO PROJECTS
• Lots of copies of the same print, or multiples of the same print on different types of paper.
• Simple limited-color graphics with relatively light ink coverage
• Designs that don’t rely on being perfect, and are forgiving about consistency and registration
• Imperfections are part of the Riso experience! Smudges, smears, + marks happen, and not every print that comes out will be identical.

BAD RISO PROJECTS
• You only need one copy, and it’s a dark multi-color full-bleed photograph that needs to look absolutely perfect, clean, and crisp.
• Overprinting small details or text as they won’t always line up perfectly. Each print can vary by 3mm in any direction.

INK COVERAGE
Good for Riso: Relatively light ink coverage.
Not Good for Riso: Large solid areas of color will come out too wet and uneven. Heavy ink can smear and cause paper jams

DRYING
• Drying time varies and is hard to predict.
• Prints come out wet. Don’t touch the ink right away.
• Very light coverage might be dry within an hour.
• Heavy, dark prints can take 24-48 hours
• Cut down on drying time by not having 100% black in your original and set the machine to the lightest ink density.

Do NOT run prints through the machine again until dry.
• This is for double-sided, or 3rd /4th color
• Give 24 hours of drying time after printing the second layer

SMUDGE AND ERASE
• Even after a print is dry, it’s still possible to smudge them.
• Smudges and marks can usually be cleaned with an eraser.

TEMPLATES + FILE PREPARATION
Blue/Pink/Yellow/Black Template File – Illinois.edu

RESOURCES

User Manual for RISO MF9450 – BU's RISO Machine
2D Prototyping Risograph Printing – MICA
In Depth File Preparation – MICA
RISO LAB + Remote Courses – SVA
Risograph File Setup Guide – Parsons (PDF)
File Preparation/Raster Images in Photoshop – Illinois (PDF)
Riso Print Guide – Illinois (PDF)
Printing to the Riso SF9450 – Illinois (PDF)
Printing from the SF9450 Scanner Bed – Illinois (PDF)

RESOURCES from various Risograph Studios

Exploriso – Everything you need to know!
Secret RISO Club – RISO Setup
Perfectly Acceptable – RISO Printing Info
Risolve Studio – FIle Setup
Perfectly Acceptable – Print Info
Moniker Press – Print Guide
Oddities Prints – Know How
out of the blueprint – RISO Setup
Press Paper Punch – RISO Printing
Hato Press – RISO Guide
Risolve Studios – How to set up Adobe Photoshop Files
Rissolve Studios – How to set up PDF files
Common Satisfactory Standard – RISO info
Soft City Printing – Info
Lucky Risograph – Info
Wooly Press – Print Info
Issue Press
Pamflett – Self-publishing workshop & artists’ books

OTHER RESOURCES

STENCIL: Riso Wiki Page
The Vintage Japanese Copy Machine Enjoying an Artistic Renaissance – Atlas Obscura
Top 15 Risograph Printing Studios – People of Print
Hallagans – Supplies
Riso Ephemera – Instagram
The Riso Museum – Wooly Press
On Riso Printing & Prototyping – Medium.com
Riso From Home: Collage Edition – Hato Press

IMPERFECTIONS OF RISO PRINTS
Smudging: Risograph ink is made from a combination of soy-oil, water and pigment. Only some types of paper are suitable for printing with the Riso and the prints will always retain a newspaper like quality - with enough effort you will find that the ink can smudge and rub off onto your finger tips.

Roller marks: Heavy ink coverage in a print can often result in marks when printing successive layers or on the reverse side of the press sheet. The Riso feeds paper using a set of rubber tires that travel across the center of the sheet. When feeding paper that has already been printed this can often result in track marks on the lead edge of the sheet.

Uneven ink coverage: The Risograph creates prints using a rubber roller which presses the sheet of paper against the print drum as it spins. The speed of printing and surface of the roller do not create perfect impressions. Large flat areas of ink coverage can sometimes appear slightly uneven.

Registration & Trapping: Risographs are designed for simple 1 or 2 color graphics. To get the best results when printing more complex artwork, it is important to include trapping. Trapping is the process of adding overlap between colours that interact in order to avoid gaps or white spaces in case of misregistration. If you have any questions or need help adding trapping we're happy to do so.

Pindot Press
Risograph Video Library

Olivia runs a small risograph printing press called Pindot Press, which serves artists. The channel offers tips and tutorials having to do with making art and zines on a risograph duplicator.

Find Out More

Olivia's art portfolio is at oliviaongai.com
Pindot Press is at pindotpress.com

Splitting Channels in Photoshop

InDesign File Export & Placing Photoshop Images into InDesign

Drawing from Scratch and Using Layers in Photoshop

PAPER COLLAGE TECHNIQUE
The flatbed scanner on the Risograph allows you to create prints without the need for a computer.

A2 Riso black and white print made during the workshop of Masha Titova.

Linda Retterova, "COLLAGE BOOK" all images are drawn with ink, cut and directly scanned on RISO. No use of computer post-production (brown, teal and federal blue) 14,3 x 20,3 cm, 24 pages (2018)