Risoprint on colored paper

Riso printing features beautiful bright colors, visible imperfections, and rasters. It is often printed on white paper, but colored paper can give the print surprisingly different results. Most riso ink is semi-transparent, so it blends not only with the other printed colors but also with the color of the paper. This creates an extra color in your print without having to print it! In this blog, I will show what happens when different riso colors are printed on colored paper.

Unlike many other printing techniques, riso ink is therefore not completely opaque. You can often clearly see the underlying surface. This is also how you use mixed colors between the different inks. If you print blue over pink, you get purple. But what if your background has a different color? Many people still remember mixing colors from primary school. With paint, you learn that red and blue together make purple, and that yellow with blue makes green. By mixing two (or more) colors, a new color is created. With riso printing, this happens in a similar way, only you do not mix the colors beforehand (with paint); instead, they are created by the layers being printed on top of each other.

On a computer, color works slightly differently. Screens often use the RGB color system. That stands for red, green, and blue light. By combining these three colors of light, all other colors you see on a screen are created. Most standard printing often uses CMYK colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (key). Instead of light, inks are used here that are printed on top of each other. You can see this reflected in your regular printer at home as well. You can also work this way with riso printing, as described in the previous blog. Because riso ink is transparent, you can see this color mixing from elementary school reflected extra clearly in the print.

Types of paper

Not every type of paper is suitable for the risograph printer. For example, you cannot print on coated paper. This is the paper you recognize from flyers; it is smooth and glossy. Uncoated paper, on the other hand, works well for printing with the risograph printer. You can recognize this by a matte finish, and sometimes some texture. In the studio, we use BioTop as standard, in various thicknesses. Because BioTop is bleached without chlorine, the paper is less harmful to the environment than many other types of paper. This also ensures that the paper is not pure white. It is a bit of an off-white, which works very well with the bright colors of the risograph. But there are many types of paper that do work!

Where can I buy colored paper?

You can buy colored paper in many different places. Stores like Hema and Action offer a wide selection, for example this neon copy paper from Hema.

These colored sheets from Hema, for example, are neon. Especially with more opaque risograph colors (such as black, aqua, blue, red, and gold), this creates a strong contrast. This makes your design really stand out! If you want nicer paper than Hema's, Clairefontaine also has beautiful colored sheets. You can order these online, but you can also sometimes find them in art supply stores. It is a bit harder to find colored A3 sheets, especially if you want them to be heavier than regular printer sheets. Therefore, I would advise printing on A4 paper, especially if you plan to cut it smaller.

So, if you choose colored paper, you must keep in mind that, as mentioned earlier, it is uncoated. It is best to feel the paper to check. If it feels very smooth, it won't work! Another option is printing on transparent sheets. However, keep in mind that it will take longer for the print to dry. The ink needs to soak into the paper, which is also why you cannot risograph print on coated or smooth paper.

Test: 9 riso inks on colored paper

I created a design using all 9 riso colors from Studio Misprint, to explore what those mixed colors do on colored paper.

The design on standard white paper! For this design, I chose to place the names of the inks large on the poster, surrounded by stars and dots. These then blend into the other colors, to show the mixed colors between the inks on the colored paper as well.

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The design on a number of colored sheets. The first thing that immediately struck me during printing was that the aqua ink was the only one of the light colors that was very opaque on every color of paper. With all the other colors, you can clearly see the effect the colored paper creates.

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Personally, I find it comparable to how the inks look when you print them on top of each other. Red, aqua, teal, medium blue, and black are therefore quite opaque in this regard. Whereas yellow, fluorescent orange, green, and fluorescent pink are not. What is also noticeable is that the bright colors blend in a bit more with the color of the paper.

You can see both of these clearly in this print. The more opaque colors seem to lie on the dark pink paper, while the brighter colors appear to blend into the paper a bit more.

So, it is interesting to let the color of the paper play a role in your design! Riso printing is of course always a bit unpredictable, but if you are looking for something more unique, printing on colored paper is always a good option!

Want to experiment with riso on colored paper yourself? Join Printclub or browse my riso prints and cards in the webshop.