Welcome the RISO – Unpacking and Intro

In the summer of 2015, I got a Risograph digital duplicator. Don’t know what a risograph is? Keep reading!

As a printmaking enthusiast, I was always on the look for different printing techniques and I finally found one that I could fit into my small house in Brooklyn (it barely fits). More on that later.

Risograph (also called a Digital Duplicator) is a “high-speed digital printing system manufactured by the Riso Kagaku Corporation and was designed mainly for high-volume photocopying and printing. It was released in Japan in August 1986.” My machine is an RP3700 and it was released in 2003.

“The original is scanned through the machine and a master is created, by means of tiny heat spots on a thermal plate burning voids (corresponding to image areas) in a master sheet. This master is then wrapped around a drum and ink is forced through the voids in the master. The paper runs flat through the machine while the drum rotates at high speed to create each image on the paper.” If you are familiar with screenprinting, you can easily understand Riso’s process. The master in the Riso basically becomes the screen. Instead of using photosensitive emulsion, a Riso uses a master which is “thermosensitive”. The heat creates little openings (voids) on the master so that the ink can go through. Once the master is burnt, it gets wrapped around the color drum. Then the color drum spins at high a speed and the ink gets pushed to the paper that moves flat through the machine.

Risographs are not as small as your desktop printers. They look more like big photocopy machines you see at your office. Above is an image of the package we received. So carrying this to the third floor of a non-elevator building was a big challenge. After two hours, gallons of sweat and desperation, we were able to put the Riso into its room (which also happens to be our guest room, so we are hoping our guests will be traveling light from now on.)

For their help on carrying this giant monster, I have to thank Trevor Bachman; composer / actor; Michael Kosciesza, film maker whose documentary Shred America will come out later this year, and our heroic neighbor Emmanuel who just saw us struggling and offered his help.