Black & White Riso Printing
For the Conception and Creation course this semester, we got an assignment where the final output required was an A4 format, two sheets (8 pages), and it had to be black and white, no shades of gray.
Naturally, I have resolved to create the output with risograph.
We have worked with shapes. First we chose a shape and studied it. We created a concept and created this shape and then we turned it into analog form. Next step was to digitalize the analog form, and keep it black and white only.
I chose a hexagon. Conceptually I framed it as a primordial shape.
The hexagon is a shape that appears and repeats itself often in nature. It is the shape with many natural forms take as its most simplistic building block, and with a single aim – to preserve energy. Hexagon is a stable shape which distributes the weight and pressure evenly. The structure is strong and resistant to distortion.
We can see hexagons in many examples of natural world – in beehives, in bubbles of foamy substances, in basalt pillars. We know hexagon in benzene’s chemical built, the very basis of organic life.
See? A primordial shape.
I shall skip explanation of my analog form, the tests and mishaps and the digitalization, and go straight to the risoprinting.
So, black ink. At 100%? No. We have options, with the risograph.
You can print with graintouch or halftone. And the halftone lpi (lines per inch), you can adjust. Now, 72 lpi is the standard. You can go higher, or lower, and if you go to about 43 lpi, you het this ragged old newspaper look. That is, if you don’t print at 100%, because that really just creates a homogenous black surface area. I needed to achieve a halftone level, where the color does still look black, but the pattern is visible. So not too low, not too high opacity.
So to make the no greyscale black and white less of a bore, I decided to give it a risograph twist and implement the halftone texture at 43 lpi. The tricky part was determining the opacity. Because, as I discovered, the FH risographer doesn’t exactly differentiate between 100% to about 80% opacity.
Or does it?
There is one more thing you can adjust in print settings. The halftone angle. By default it prints at 45 degrees. So, I discovered that no matter the opacity, until I come down to about 70% , I get the same black solid . The jump from 80% to 70% was too strong, and 70% was very grey. Thereafter I decided to test it at different angle.
I set it to 30%. And it made a huge difference. Suddenly the opacity gradation worked.
Which means, in order to not lose their mind, one really need to get to know their riso machine.
