Printing with Riso
What is Risography?
Risograph machines or duplicators, are used for high speed colour printing using soy-based or rice bran ink. The print passes through drums of ink with the image seared on a master. The colours produced are unique and opaque, creating very interesting analog colour production. Riso gives a special flair to digital artwork or reproduced photographs.
File Setup
Your files will need to be separated in Grayscale PDFs. Each PDF will represent each colour to be printed in sequence as they require their own stencil (master). It is best to save in Grayscale, in 300 DPI. The max paper size for our risograph is 11"x17", smaller prints will be placed on a 11"x17" sheet and printed. Again please feel free to reach out if you have any specific size requirements.
RISO does not print a full bleed, to ensure that anything does not get cut off, please include a 0.125" margin on all sides of your file when printing on full size paper (8.5x11 or 11x17).
Stencil 1: Fluorescent Pink
Transparencies of the ink is best played around with at this stage.
Stencil 2: HD Black
Try to avoid large areas of dense black fill as that tends to flood the paper.
Final print with both colours!
HD Black + Fluo Pink on 65lb 8.5" x 11" Ivory Paper
The RISO Look
Printing with RISO means there will be slight misalignments or printer marks due to how each colour needs to register through the machine. Some common looks are offset overlays, small track marks, or slight offset in your linework and colour. Most of these can be designed around, but please keep in mind that RISO will always have these small errors due to the nature of printmaking. These small occurrences are also what make RISO fun and charming!
An offset overlay where 2 colours blend into one, but the shape is not quite unified. This is most common and unique to RISO.
A knockout effect where one colour is used to create a shadow-like effect around another colour- this can be designed in your file digitally through each colour file.
Slight track marks or areas where the ink is a little faded means the ink caught a little bit through the paper roller. These can be common, but track marks can be erased and the faded ink sometimes add to the charm of the print!
Colours Available:
We have 5 colours available: HD Black, Fluorescent Pink, Yellow, Green and Cornflower Blue. The gradient scale is for your opacity reference for your print. The opaque colours will blend when printed on top of each other, so please keep this in mind!
Paper Options
The RISO machine can print up to 11"x17", 100lb paper, max- some paper options we have in-house are the following:
Click on the paper to see a swatch.
8.5x11
Astrobrights, 65lb Cover Bright White
Astrobrights, 65lb Cover Confetti White
Astrobrights, 65lb Cover, Cream
Astrobrights, 65lb Cover, Natural Texture
Astrobrights, 65lb Cover, Fluorescent Series
Yellow, Pink, Green, Light Green, Orange
Astrobrights, 65lb Cover , Pastel Series
Mint, Blue, Yellow, Peach, Pink
Neenah, 60lb Text, White
Cougar, 32/80lb Text, Natural
Church Paper, 60lb Text, Warm White
11x17
Springhill Vellum Bristol, 67lb Cover, Blue
Springhill Vellum Bristol, 67lb Cover, Ivory
Hammermill, 60lb Text, White Church Paper,
60lb Text, White
What is the difference between Cover and Text?
Cover paper is a cardstock paper, meaning it's sturdier, perfect for prints that need multiple passes of ink. Text paper is thinner, and is great for zine printing that requires folding or stapling, but not recommended for prints that require more than 2 inks.
Estimate Form
Once you're ready with your files, please fill in the the estimate form below and we will get back to you! Feel free to reach out to copycat.riso@gmail.com if you have any questions. Currently, CopyCat Studio can only do prints or single page zines, booklet printing will be coming soon!