There are a small number of publicly accessible Risograph machines in England, and fortunately there are two or three within Leeds itself. However when I contacted the studios for printing quotes it became clear that it would not be economically viable to use a local studio. This was due in part to this project having such a small print run relative to the commercial scale that these studios were accustomed to printing. I contacted a number of other Risograph studios and arranged to use the Risograph machine at the Manchester School of Art.
The printing process for the newspaper was relatively simple as the majority of the book was to be printed in blue ink, with a single spread in an accented orange ink. The designs for the spreads were saved as pdf's and then sent to the machine one by one, where a new master was made for each spread. The front side of each page was printed and then left to dry for two hours before the reverse sides were printed. The pages were then left for another two hours to minimise smudging. Once fully dry the printed pages were brought back to LCA where they were hand-folded and bound with a single staple.
The newspaper was printed on Evercopy Plus 100% recycled stock, 80gsm. This is a relatively thin stock for risograph printing, however it provided the appropriate texture and feel to simulate a commercial newspaper.
Through previous experiences in other projects I was aware that Risographs can often be temperamental, as the Riso Kagaku company no longer produces the machines and any machines that are still functioning today are often old. However there were very few disruptions to the printing process during this project, and any problems were resolved quickly and with minimal disruption. The most significant problem occurred when denser section of the design were printed as this required a heavier amount of ink to be transferred to the paper. On multiple occasions the design bled through to the back of the page, but this could be resolved easily by changing the contrast and opacity in the design. This did not effect the design of the book overall as any changes were minimal.
Risograph machines are prized for being environmentally friendly as the inks are made from recycled soy and the fast printing speed (average 130 pages per minutes) means that a larger print run is more environmentally efficient than a smaller run. When using the machine in Manchester a 30 print run minimum was imposed, however a larger print run would be necessary when also taking into consideration any misprinted or misaligned pages. In total, a print run of 40 was produced of each individual spread. Through the collation process after printing a number of spreads were found to be unsuitable for binding, and so the final number of newspaper copies was finalised at 30.
Printing on a Risograph is also economically efficient. Using the prices set by the Manchester School of Art each new master (each spread) cost £3 to make, but there was not a limit placed on the number of copies that could be printed per master. In total the cost of printing was £27, so the cost per newspaper in a 30 print run would be 90p. As the newspaper would be distributed freely within the metro station this would still incur a loss of profit, however per book this is very minimal and with a larger print run of hundreds if not thousands this could be reduced significantly.
Risograph machine
Mid-print
Printed pages in blue and orange
Final printed spreads