Risograph printing creates some staggeringly colorful results, along with a finished aesthetic that makes it appear deceptively simple to master. Try your hand at this printing style, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be fascinated by its output and quality.<\/p>\n
Invented by Japan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Riso Kagaku Corporation in 1986, the risograph itself is a brand of printer duplicators or digital duplicators. A digital duplicator is a form of printing technology designed to handle high-volume print tasks (upwards of 20 copies) with relative ease, while keeping costs down compared to offset printing equipment or toner-based copiers. This ideal balance makes it a welcome alternative for many designers, illustrators, and creatives.<\/p>\n
There are benefits to this method beyond cost and productivity<\/a> advantages. Printing with the risograph technique produces an unmistakable aesthetic that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been described as handcrafted and simple, though memorable, all at once.<\/p>\n If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever heard of a mimeograph, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on track to understanding this process and how it works. A mimeograph is an old-fashioned duplicating machine that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t break the bank. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regarded as the forerunner to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laser printers, scanners, and photocopiers. It worked by pushing ink onto paper through a stencil, which is why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also called a stencil duplicator. By the 1960s, this technology began to peter out and was replaced with photocopying.<\/p>\n The most attractive benefit of using this machine was the opportunity for people to print on the cheap with a widely accessible technology. Print projects that needed only low volume were frequently commissioned, such as church<\/a> bulletins, classroom materials, and office documents. An interesting tidbit is that some of the earliest forms of fanzines were printed using a mimeograph.<\/p>\n The method by which risograph printing works is somewhat similar to how this machine operates, but a risograph actually combines numerous processes that were usually done manually.<\/p>\n Think of a risograph as a copier of sorts. Like a copier, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a scanner table on top of the unit, where you position the original. Like a regular printer, the newest models will be able to process your digital files, too.<\/p>\n An original document is scanned into the digital duplicator, thereby producing a master<\/strong>, which is a sheet that covers the screen of the drum (more on that below). The master is created by small dots of heat placed on a thermal plate that burn voids into the master sheet; these voids then align to the image areas of the original.<\/p>\n The master gets wrapped around a drum: a cylinder full of one color of ink and concealed under a metal screen with small holes, and then ink is pushed through the master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voids. Paper is fed and run flat through the printer duplicator, as the drum turns at a fast velocity to produce every image on the paper.<\/p>\n The master is actually a stencil<\/a>, which means it functions in the same way as a silkscreen. Ink, therefore, comes out where it needs to and is stopped to prevent it from emerging where it shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Where allowed, the ink is stamped to your paper, producing a print.<\/p>\n While this printing process is unique, the output from risograph printing can still be handled like any other offset-printed material. This is due to two factors:<\/p>\n As a result, the sheets that have gone through a risograph may also be put through a laser printer after the fact (and vice versa).<\/p>\n Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a look at graphic-design assets that further give you a better idea of the handcrafted look of this aesthetic:<\/p>\n In many cases, these printer duplicators come with interchangeable drums and color inks. This feature lets you print in various colors or with just one spot color for a single print project. Some duplicators even come with two ink drums; this allows you to print two colors in one go. The machine prints all your colors individually, much like screen printing. Therefore, if you wish to print with many colors, you actually have to repeat the printing process with a new drum and thereby construct your prints layer by layer.<\/p>\n Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cool, little-known fact about printing in this way: you use soy milk<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true. Vegetable soybean oil is typically the ink that these digital duplicators use. However, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one drawback to this: all the paper stock you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be working with has to be uncoated for your ink to actually dry and stay on the paper stock.<\/p>\n Ask some people how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d describe this illustrative technique, and they may have trouble articulating it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s understandable, given the almost children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s storybook quality of its prints. While minimalism<\/a> is definitely a trademark of this technique, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deeper than that.<\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a certain roughness, lack of polish, and even lack of balance in anything risograph that actually makes it quite endearing. This idiosyncratic aesthetic is what gives this design movement its charm; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see anywhere else in exactly the same way.<\/p>\n Together with this trait is the fact that it appears relatively simple to recreate. However, looks can be deceiving, as it takes quite some effort and practice to eventually master this technique so that your prints look the way they should.<\/p>\n Here are some of the key design characteristics of this movement:<\/p>\n Overall, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be quite easy to spot a print in this style when you see it, due to the constellation of its telltale features.<\/p>\n Have a look at yet more design assets inspired by risograph printing to better get a feel for this style\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aesthetic:<\/p>\n Maybe you want to try your hand at something new, creatively. Perhaps you want to impress a new client. Whatever the use case may be, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good chance you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll eventually work with this technique, thanks to its accessibility, cost-efficiency, and original aesthetic.<\/p>\n When that day comes, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll want to make the most of your time with your design experiments in this process. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how to do that:<\/p>\n<\/span>What Is Risograph Printing?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>The Design Characteristics of Risograph Printing<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Actionable Tips for Working With Riso<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Risograph in Graphic Design<\/span><\/h2>\n