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Riso prints in different colors at Risolve Studio

We are not accepting new clients

Due to an increase in demand, our current Risolve Clients will be our focus. We are not able to accept new clients wanting to work with us for the first time. 

Current Risolve Clients - Please fill out the quote request form as you normally would. We look forward to hearing from you. We consider a current client someone who has worked with us within the last three years.

New Clients: We may able to accept new clients in early 2024 and will announce this via Instagram, TikTok and our email newsletter (see the bottom of our homepage). We won't be offering a waitlist. 

What is Riso?

Risograph is a print process which combines the best of digital and traditional print: a hand-made look and feel with the speed, low-cost and efficiency of a modern printer. Though it looks on the outside like a copy machine, the Risograph is not a copier. It is a duplicator (think mimeograph) with a process like screen printing. The Riso duplicator internally creates a stencil that is laid onto a drum filled with ink. The drum then spins at high speed, forcing the ink through the stencil onto the paper, where it is absorbed creating a unique look and texture.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Riso Kagaku Corporation is the inventor and distributor of Riso print equipment. The Risograph was marketed for high volume and inexpensive duplicating and to this day it is mainly used by businesses, schools and churches who need production runs of 50 to 10,000 prints of the same thing. Because of Riso’s similarities to screen printing and the availability of 21 standard colors along with 50 custom colors, designers and artists have begun adapting these machines to produce beautiful and unique spot color based works.

Riso printing

We offer a variety of printing and finishing services. The Riso machine can accommodate up to 11" x 17" sized paper to create the following projects:

Posters, flyers, books, art prints, menus, maps, folded cards, envelopes, zines, brochures, and much more.

Risograph Printing is a digital duplicator process that has unique characteristics and always contains slight imperfections. These include: 

  1. Smudging. Risograph ink is made from a combination of environmentally friendly soy oil, water and pigment, the prints are reminiscent of newspaper ink and it is possible to smudge the ink.
  2. Uneven coverage. Large flat areas of solid ink coverage are likely to show some slight variations, which can include pinholes and flooding.
  3. Registration. Riso is like screen printing in that each ink color is layered on separately. A single piece of paper will run through our machines several times for multi-color projects and the overlap of colors can be irregular.
  4. Tire marks. When a paper is fed through the machine multiple times and it is heavily inked, the paper feeder rollers may leave tire marks on the pages face or end sheets.

Paper options

The Riso can accept paper with weights from 20lb bond (75 gsm) to 80lb cover (218 gsm). We keep a variety of paper types and weights in stock.
Due to the nature of Riso ink, we can only work with absorbent, non-coated paper. Using absorbent paper will minimize potential smudging. We have found that vellum and smooth papers work the best.

More information about our Papers here.

More information

    Ink colors

    Our machines use plant-based inks in a variety of colors designed specifically for the Risograph process.

    We currently have 33 different ink colors to choose from. We recommend using 1-4 ink colors for your print project.

    Download our ink swatch library for Adobe Creative Cloud here

    FLUORESCENTS/SPECIALTY COLORS

    Peach  ☻ PMS 932 U / #fdd6c0
    Fluorescent Pink  ☻ PMS 806 U / #f360a3
    Neon Coral  ☻ PMS 812 U / #f15288
    Fluorescent Orange  PMS 805 U / #f5767c
    Fluorescent Yellow*  ☻ PMS 803 U / #f9ff65
    Fluorescent Green*  ☻ PMS 802 U / #83e790
    Metallic Gold*  ☻ PMS 872 U / #a29280

    *these starred inks are more expensive than the rest of our colors

    REGULAR COLORS

    Bisque  ☻ PMS 489 U / #f1bfa4
    Bubblegum  ☻ PMS 231 U / #f280a4
    Cranberry  ☻ PMS 214 U / #c04b60
    Scarlet  ☻ PMS RED 032 U / #f04f55
    Orange   PMS ORANGE 021 U / #f36d38
    Sunflower  ☻ PMS 116 U / #fcb132
    Yellow  ☻ PMS YELLOW U / #ffdf0a
    Light Lime  ☻ PMS 387 U / #d9e256
    Kelly Green  ☻ PMS 368 U / #3ca448
    Agave  ☻ PMS 345 U / #65aa93
    Turquoise  ☻ PMS 3275 U / #009977
    Hunter Green  ☻ PMS 342 U / #416056
    Mint  ☻ PMS 324 U / #80cfd0
    Light Teal  ☻ PMS 320 U / #008999
    Aqua  ☻ PMS 637 U / #22bde7
    Cornflower  ☻ PMS 292 U / #5a96d0
    Blue  ☻ PMS 3005 U / #007dc2
    Federal Blue  ☻ PMS 288 U / #44608c
    Steel   PMS 302 U / #41586b
    Violet  ☻ PMS 265 U / #8d79b8
    Purple  ☻ PMS 268 U / #614a86
    Burgundy  ☻ PMS 235 U / #844f55
    Brown  ☻ PMS 7526 U / #795645
    Flat Gold  ☻ PMS 1245 U / #96763c
    Light Gray  ☻ PMS 424 U / #9e9c9d
    Black  ☻ PMS BLACK U / #21201f