Risograph vs Screenprint
リソグラフ / スクリーンプリント／シルクスクリーン
Both split the image by color and print the layers one over another, and both show flat spot color with slight misregistration.
How to tell them apart. Risograph shows a dot grain and the ink strikes through to the back of the sheet. Screenprint sits raised on the surface and you can feel it.
Risograph
Keeps the per-color plates and their happy misregistration, giving each copy its own body heat.
Screenprint
Parts of a mesh screen are blocked and parts left open, and a squeegee forces ink through, printing hard contours and flat, strong color one layer at a time.
| Risograph | Screenprint | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1980s– / contemporary revival | 20th century– |
| Family | Stencil Printing | Stencil Printing |
| Kind | Technique | Technique |
| Cues | Misregistration / Spot-color inks / Halftone dots / Paper show-through | Hard contours / Flat color planes / Layer-by-layer overlap / Slight misregistration |
| Best used for | Handmade heat for zines and event notices · Memorable print with very few colors | Small runs of posters and shirts that need fluorescent or spot inks at full strength · Printing thick flat color onto cloth, wood or metal rather than paper |
| Type | Bold letters or homely serifs, separated by color plate | Avoid hairlines and tiny text, thickening letters until the mesh clears them |
| Composition | Large planes where overlap and slippage stay visible | Plan color count as screen count and let overlaps make a third color |
| Material | Two or three spot colors, coarse halftones, uncoated paper | Match mesh to ink and substrate, allowing time for drying and registration |
| Caution | Don't fake it with a noise filter. Design how the colors overlap first. | Do not fake it with a separation filter or treat misregistration and patchy ink as charm. Design screen count, print order, opacity, registration and substrate, because the hard edge is the real advantage. |