A Risograph print guide designed & curated by Dizzy Ink.

08. IMPERFECTIONS

Risograph printing has a character all of its own. Slight shifts, marks and variations aren't necessarily flaws. They're part of what makes every Riso print feel unique and magical.

It’s worth remembering that Risograph printing is all about character, rather than absolute perfection.

Your finished print will naturally look and feel different from the digital artwork on screen, and ink colours may vary from what you see on your monitor. Each colour layer is aligned and adjusted by hand, so slight shifts and small imperfections are all part of the process and give Riso prints their distinctive charm.

8.1 Registration & Colour Alignment

Riso colours are printed individually, one layer at a time. Because each pass through the machine is aligned manually, colours won't always sit perfectly on top of one another. A small shift of a millimetre or two is completely normal, and the more colours your artwork uses, the more noticeable these little variations can become.

It's best to avoid designs that rely on extremely precise colour alignment, particularly very small details or text made from overlapping colours.

We take plenty of care when registering each layer, but pin-perfect alignment isn't really what Risograph is about. Those tiny shifts are part of its distinctive charm.

X REGISTRATION Y REGISTRATION

8.2 Roller & Feed Marks

As each sheet travels through the printer, rubber rollers grip the paper near the leading edge. Heavy areas of ink within roughly the top 50mm of your artwork can therefore be more prone to roller marks or feeding issues, so keeping ink coverage lighter in this area can help.

The mechanism that guides the paper out of the machine can also occasionally leave a fine line when passing over particularly dense areas of ink.

These marks are more likely with heavily inked, multi-colour or double-sided prints. We'll always do what we can to minimise them and, if we spot something in your artwork that could cause problems, we may recommend a small adjustment before printing.

If a roller mark appears on an otherwise unprinted area of paper, a clean pencil eraser can often gently remove it.