Not Quite CMYK: Full-Color Risograph Printing & Publication

Risograph printing doesn't reproduce a photograph so much as translate it — into a handful of inks, a halftone screen, and the happy accidents of a machine built for office copying. This course goes beyond the two-color print into the Riso's richest territory: 3- and 4-color photographic printing, where overlapping translucent inks rebuild a full-color image out of colors that aren't quite CMYK — on purpose. Working from your own photographs, you'll learn the complete prepress craft: choosing an ink palette and understanding what it can and cannot say, color separation with ICC profiles and Photoshop, soft proofing, screening, multi-pass registration, and the press-side judgment that turns a stack of proofs into a consistent edition.

The course is built around a publication. Across the term, each participant develops a body of 3–4 prints while the group designs, produces, and binds a collaborative Riso publication carrying everyone's work. You'll leave with your own prints, copies of the group publication, and a working command of the full photograph-to-publication pipeline. Open to all but prior Riso experience or basic Photoshop comfort recommended.

By the end of this workshop you will be able to:

• Choose a 3- or 4-color ink palette for a specific photograph — and predict what it can and can't do before printing
• Separate a full-color photograph into Riso-ready channels using ICC profiles (and a profile-free Photoshop method when needed)
• Control tone like a printer: linearity curves, dot gain, screening choices
• Register 3–4 passes tightly — and judge when drift is a flaw and when it's the look
• Design a Riso publication end to end: sequencing, imposition, paper, covers, colophon, binding, and edition numbering