They’re essentially a hybrid between a copy machine and silk screening and have become much beloved by artists. If you go to any art book, illustration, or independent comics festival, books printed on Risographs abound.
Wow, thanks for sharing this! It’s so cool to see these things are still around and enjoying new uses. I remember them fondly from my youth. At my church, we had one in addition to the normal photocopier and I was fascinated with how it worked in comparison.
At the time, it was significantly cheaper to print on the Risograph, but only if you were printing more than say, 100, because of the fixed cost of the stencil it had to create.
The quality of the output was different, not necessarily worse, but not as black and with a more official feel than a photocopy. They had a distinctive smell and came out slightly wet for a few seconds.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/risograph-machines
They’re essentially a hybrid between a copy machine and silk screening and have become much beloved by artists. If you go to any art book, illustration, or independent comics festival, books printed on Risographs abound.