Type

Use registration black for best results with small text (12pt or smaller), even if you’re not printing in black ink. This helps the RISO print text more sharply.

Avoid setting type in Photoshop. Photoshop rasterises text (flattens into pixels instead of vectors), which means the RISO doesn’t ‘read’ it as text.

Avoid overprinting colours for body text. Any misalignment will make the text very difficult to read.

Steer clear of white ‘knockout’ text. RISO will print the surrounding shape, not the text itself, which can affect legibility especially on two-colour prints (or more).

Photographs

Monochrome photos work well – if it looks good in black and white, it’ll print well in RISO.

For best results, boost contrast. RISO prints often come out lighter than expected.

For colour photos, try using fluorescent pink, yellow, and blue to mimic CMYK (we prefer leaving out the black). You can also try fun combinations like teal, yellow, and fluo orange instead. If you’re not comfortable separating channels in photoshop, try Spektrolite – a free app that generates riso layers for you.

Overlays

RISO inks are semi-transparent, so overlapping ink colours creates more colour options.

Use the ‘multiply’ blend mode in photoshop, procreate or indesign to preview how your layers will look when printed together.

Misregistration

Colours are printed one at a time, so they don’t always line up perfectly. This is called misregistration, and it’s an inherent part of the process that makes each print unique.

Avoid overlapping fine details or text, as layers can shift up to 3mm in any direction.

You can sometimes use trapping to help colours overlap cleanly, or just embrace the wonkiness!

Heavy ink

RISO isn’t built for full pages of ink – too much ink means the paper sticks to the ink drum and causes all sorts of problems! Large areas of solid colour can have inconsistent ink coverage. Aim for no more than 75% ink coverage per layer.

If your artwork has too much solid black it can crash the print drivers which means the file just won’t print. In these cases we suggest that you reduce the intensity of coverage, or even invert the design to have more white areas than black.

Heavy ink at the top edge of your print can be a problem, and often causes inky roller marks or a line of ink dragged down the centre. If the bottom edge has less coverage, simply rotating your design 180° can help avoid this.

Halftones

RISO automatically processes greyscale files into a bitmap, turning grey tones into dots using either the default grainy texture (Grain Touch) or a halftone pattern (Screen-covered).

We’re usually pretty good at choosing the right options for each image, but if you want to use a particular setting please specify when sending in your files.