Risograph

    Hato Press is a print and publishing house which runs one Risograph MZ 770 and two RP 3700 stencilduplicators. The risograph covers a gap in the market that has been held by digital and lithograph printing. At current we have 16 colours.

    We apply this printing process to the production of artist publications, invites, flyers, posters, illustration prints and zines, though it was traditionally used for high volume printing and photocopying in schools, churches and small political parties.

    Our main press is our three Risograph stencil duplicators. Traditionally, Risographs have been used for high volume photocopying in schools, churches and small political parties. We have customized the process for the production of artist publications, invites, flyers, posters, illustration prints and zines.

    Many of the books we produce not only make use of risograph printing but also letterpress, screen printing and offset lithography.

    Environmentally friendly

    The risograph is an environmentally friendly and cost effective printer which uses soy based inks to produce unique quality outcomes. Each screen is made from banana paper and unlike litho printing only takes a single print for the screen to be fully inked and ready for printing.

    All the paper stocked at Hato is supplied by Paperback, one of the UK’s first paper companies to specialise in recycled papers. Of course we can easily accomodate self provided paper if required.

    In addition to this, we use all our test prints and off prints to produce hand finished notebooks, which are available in our shop to purchase.

    Printing process


    We run two models, the RP machines are both a single drum machine, which means for each pass through the printer a single colour is produced. However, our MZ is a two colour machine, therefore each pass through the printer two colours can be printed.

    The risograph will automatically convert your images into halftones or grains, so no need to play around with bitmaps. However, we do ask you to set up your files as pdfs, and to make sure when exporting text and line art to keep them as vectors and to not rasterize them.

    Our process
    We’ve been running the press for over a three years now and have learnt how to get the optimum output from the printer for 1-4 colour photos, posters, books and artworks.

    We have also been running riso-workshops at the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths and Central Saint Martins. So please feel free to ask for any advice on printing, we are here to help and talk you through things.

    Colours we keep


    Please feel free to email us at info@hatopress.net to request colour and paper samples. We will be sure to get them in the post to you as soon as possible.

    Unlike litho printing, screen printing and letterpress risographs don’t have a pantone stystem. However, we have done our best to match our current colours. Beware that colours do vary according to paper stock.

    Black – Neutral Black U
    Federal Blue – 294 U
    Medium Blue – 2738 U
    Light blue – 3005 U
    Purple – 275 U
    Teal – 328 U
    Green – 354 U
    Yellow – Yellow U
    Gold – 117 U
    Orange – 1505 U
    Red – Warm Red U
    Fluorescent Pink – 906 U

    Coming soon…
    Fluorescent Orange
    Burgundy
    Hunter Green
    Brown

    Papers we keep


    Our papers include Cyclus offset, Cocoon, Redeem, Colorset and Munken. All our papers are stocked in A3. Below are some more details on the individual paper stocks below. Please be aware of the grain of papers when producing books. If none of the below papers meet your requirements, you are more than welcome to supply your own stock, however please contact us in advance.

    Evercopy/Evercolor
    A recycled fibrous paper, which is are most cost effective stock. Evercopy comes in short grain and 80gsm.

    Cyclus
    Cyclus is an off white stock that is great for books, fold out posters, cards and flyers. We stock Cyclus at 115gsm and 250gsm both short grain.

    Cocoon
    Cocoon, is a smooth yet very slightly textured white paper which is also great for books and fold outs. We stock cocoon at 100gsm, short grain.

    Olin recycled
    Olin is a smooth cream paper, with an ever slight texture it’s ideal for artist prints and books. Our stock of Olin recycled is 120gsm and short grain.

    Munken
    We now stock Munken Lynx Rough 170gsm, this paper stock is ideal for artist and illustration prints and also for cover of small books and zines that need to be saddle stitched. As 170gsm is the heaviest weight we can saddle stitch books before having to crease the cover seperately. Our stock of Munken is long grain. Unfortunately Munken is not recycled but it is FSC certified, therefore for each ream we order we will be donating to Trees for Life (Hato Press grove coming soon!)

    Turn around time

    We have an average turn around time of two days, but can do same day by agreement. More complicated print jobs (those with multiple layers) will generally take longer as we need to allow for drying time between the layers.

    Some notes

    The Risograph is not perfect like a inkjet or laser printer.

    The prints will probably look different from what you see on your computer screen.

    There will be print marks, especially when printing more than one layer or double sided. But these can easily be rubbed off with a rubber.

    Registration will not be perfect when printing more than one layer, that is because the Risograph prints only one layer at a time.