All about riso printing

If you would like to work on a print or book project with us, please keep the following in mind:

Risograph printing is a digital duplicating process, falling somewhere between silkscreen, photocopy, and offset. Images are transferred either digitally through a print controller or scanning on the glass top flat bed. Check out this super helpful video from the Riso corporation -

FILE SET UP

The largest print area we can achieve is 10.25" x 16.25" on 11" x 17" paper. When we can, we like to utilize as much paper space as possible. Our printing services include prepress and imposition set up. If printing a book, we prefer that you provide us with individual 300-600 dpi greyscale PDFs (a separate file for each color, clearly labelled) along with a color pdf proof. Please don’t add your own crop marks. Just let us know the finished size and we will do that for you. If your project requires additional file prep or if you need help turning your files into greyscale, we are more than happy to help you at a $45/hr fee. Before you print with us, please take a look at our handy file tips.

The stencils (called MASTERS) created for each color layer for each print are not reusable. Therefore, if you would like to see a printed proof of your print or a book spread, we charge extra for the proof. Please see Terms and Conditions for more info.

INKS

The ink used in Risograph printing is soy based and comes pre mixed in cartridges. Inks produced by Riso are specific, proprietary spot colors and there is no CMYK. But because the ink is so transparent and density can easily be controlled, you can create a variety color combinations. Also, because each color is laid down one at a time, mis-registration can often occur. To account for this, we encourage you to trap your images. Or just go with it!

If you are working digitally, you can download our Adobe Swatch book, Adobe Color book, and Procreate Swatch Book, shoutout to Spectrolite for creating these digital swatches!

If you are using a MAC computer and you would like an easy way to do file separations or to see what color combos work well together for your design, we recommend that you use the Spectrolite App! It is a free program created by Anemone Studio. You can download our color ink palette for Spectrolite here.

PAPER

Because soy-based ink is liquidy, Risograph printing only on uncoated paper. The thinnest paper is 20lb bond and the heaviest is 80lb cover (though we are always up for experimenting!) Our favorite papers to work with have either a smooth or vellum finish to it. We stock Domtar Cougar paper in 70lb text weight and 65lb cover weight, white and natural.

We can also special order paper for you. We are especially fond of French Paper Pop Tone and Dur-O-Tone Newsprint. Please allow extra time for these paper orders.

IMAGERY

Risograph can handle many different types of imagery, from digital designs, to marks made with pencils, pens, markers, and watercolor/ink wash. Photographs can be beautifully reproduced as single color, duotone or four color combinations, due to Risograph’s ability to work with halftones. Line work and text can also work exceptionally well. If preparing files with line work and/or computer generated text, please work with vector files in Illustrator. You (and us) will achieve the best results this way.

Dense, large areas of color do not print very well on the Risograph. The ink becomes heavy, leading to lots of smudges, offsetting, and roller marks. Please use 70-90% value.

In addition to printing services, we offer cutting, folding, and binding. Contact us for these options!