What is Risograph?
like screen printing, like lithography, woodblock printing is Riso.
Risograph Printing
Risograph printing is a bit like lithography, screen printing or woodblock printing, but with a machine that looks like a photocopier but isn’t. It was developed in Japan. You can combine hand drawn and digital motives and text together. Like in lithography, screen printing or woodblock printing every colour has its own stencil or template and every colour is printed separately.
Drums
Drums are key in Risograph. The image stencil is made around the drum. During printing the ink is pushed from the inside of the drum, through the stencil onto the paper. Every drum has a different colour. To make a multicoloured print you need to change the drum and make a stencil for that colour directly onto the drum. The stencils can be generated from hand made originals or sent to the drum via computer.
Colours
Every colour needs a separate drum. Between each colour the drum needs to be changed in the machine. You can only print has many colours as you have drums. I have four colours at the moment - black, blue, green and fluorescent pink. From these colours you can make an myriad of colours and tones. Let your creativity run wild.
Environmentally Friendly Printing
Risographic printing is not so harmful to our world. The inks are based on soya oil and water. The machine prints cold so therefore uses very little energy. The stencil paper which wraps around the colour drum is rice based and biodegradable.
Active Creativity
What's special about Risography is that it allows a very active creative process and you can see the outcome of your ideas quickly. It lends itself to simple graphic combinations as well as complex layered motives.