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There are two great competitions coming up that you can enter for FREE with your RISO prints - don’t miss entering. The first is the art oriented Shin Kohanga Competition, the second the Annual RISO ‘Card’ Competition that anyone can enter.
Shin Kohanga Competition
'Shin Kohanga' is a style of art print that involves printing a design in layers (not a single print) to create the final design. Different methods, techniques and equipment may be used in a single design artwork such as PRINT GOCCO printing and Screen Printing with RISO ScreenMaster.
If you print to the limits with your GOCCO creating original art prints, layered prints or EXLIBRIS prints then here is the competition for you!
Sponsored by the Japanese Shin Kohanga Foundation, an independent Japanese organisation, the Annual Shin Kohanga Competition is FREE for Australian entries, normally ¥5,000 (AUD$80.00).
25th RISO 'Card' Competition
The GOCCOclub are giving away a complete PG-11 machine & PRINT GOCCO supplies - all you have to do is enter the 25th Annual ‘Card’ Competition to be in the running!
Start collecting two samples of everything you have printed this year with your RISO screen printing systems or PRINT GOCCO (everything can be entered), put them aside and look for the entry form in the next Issue of GOCCOclub News.
View Competition Details - Click here
BIG CHANGE TO PRINT GOCCO INK COLOURS
RISO Have a new line up of colours for 2001/02
PRINT GOCCO in Australia is aligned directly with the Japanese supply of the products which means we have the most up to date machines and also receive the latest information before anyone else in the world. Sometimes though it’s not all good news as we recently discovered many of the PRINT GOCCO Paper Ink colours are no longer under production!
| 7 S-456 Fluro Orange | 7 S-472 Fluro Green | 7 S-473 Fluro Purple - NO STOCK AVAILABLE |
| 7 S-411 Pearl Blue | 7 S-412 Pearl Red | 7 S-413 Pearl Green |
| 4 S-492 Black | 4 S-493 Blue | 4 S-494 Red | 4 S-495 Green |
| 4 S-496 Brown | 4 S-498 White | 4 S-297 Gold | 4 S-298 Silver |
| 4 S-299 Bronze | 4 S-5099 Burgundy (Akane) | 4 S-5100 Teal (Aoteke) | 4 S-5101 ‘Baby’ Blue |
| 4 S-5102 ‘Shell’ Pink | 4 S-5103 ‘Apple ‘ Green | 4 S-5104 ‘Camel’ Brown | 4 S-5105 ‘Lemon’ Yellow |
| 4 S-5106 ’Moon’ Grey | 4 S-332a Process Colour Ink Set (CMY) for ‘Full Colour’ Printing | ||
 S-732 Orange (Daidai) | S-779 Lime Green (Moegi) |
| You may recall both new colours were introduced as test colours some time ago. | |
Have your say - Tell RISO in Japan what colour you would like!
The above ink changes are sure to provoke some thoughts, so tell us what you think by letter, e-mail, fax or phone and we’ll send the responses directly to RISO in Japan!
- Don’t forget you can also request a new colour in Stamp Inks for Cloth as well! (Gold?)
Using GCR, black is used in place of dark values of colours as well as in the neutral/black areas. Heavy saturation/shadow areas print cleaner this way. It's like mixing a colour with black to make it darker, only this works with separations.
This adds colour ink back in to 'dark areas' You would use this with GCR to compensate for when the print looks weird because the black removed too much colour. Please send your questions to:
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QUESTIONS |
& ANSWERS on CMYK Printing with RISO |
CMY or CMYK Printing?
Question: I am wondering whether you need 3 (CMY) or 4 (CMYK) screens for full colour printing. They only show 3 colours in the GOCCO brochure and information, but Photoshop provides separation for all 4 colours. Or maybe I'm just missing something??
If you want to print just CMY screens from Photoshop, it's probably easiest to just throw away the black separation (NO UCR, GCR/UCA). If you look at the channels in Photoshop (CMYK mode), it will give you some idea of what will print without the black ink, or you can look at just the CMY preview (I think only in PS 6 though) Otherwise, you need to print separate channels or spot colours (works quite well, but takes more fussing) to take care of what Photoshop would normally do for dark areas. If you just ignore the black separation entirely, it will work or not according to what your original image is. Experimentation is the best thing to do. Also, you might want to adjust the 'Transfer' settings to 30% or 40% before printing (page setup menu) to lighten up the output for printing. I find that you end up with pretty dark images otherwise.
I've done a lot of prints in Hexachrome (CMYKOG) with my GOCCO, and they look great. You might want to give that a try too. Good luck.
Creating an image without black
Question: I have Photoshop 5.5 and when I turn off the Black channel, the image looks bad. What would be another way to convert the image mode to just CMY? Is there any other programs that can do this, Maybe QuarkXpress? and how would you go about getting the colour separations for CMYKOG? Is it something you can do in Photoshop also??
If you're bent on printing in CMY, then you have a couple of options to get there. CMYK, turn off the black channel. Now adjust brightness and contrast (or levels or curves if you want more control) to get some of that black level back. No, it doesn't look as nice as the CMYK image. That's why they added the black ink. You can also go to Multichannel mode and do pretty much the same thing.
Generally, you'll want to put forth the extra effort and print a black screen. Your final prints will always look nicer. All of these terms are printing terms, so don't worry about not knowing them. As you can see, they do apply to (GOCCO) screen printing too. Hopefully this answers your questions.
PS. Six colour photo printers don't do Hexachrome, and can't really create the separations (like Epson, HP, Canon, etc. printers that use Light Cyan and Light Magenta inks because they can't make small enough ink dots to deal with those colours effectively).
'Off Contact' Printing |
When the ink can not be absorbed or penetrate the surface you wish to print, you can not lay your screen directly onto the surface to be printed or the design will blur/ smudge when printed. The screen must be raised above the item to be printed by approx. 3-5mm, to create an 'off contact' style of printing.
How it works - After your squeegee passes over the design area and the ink is printed onto your item, the screen 'snaps' back upwards and the ink is left sitting on top of the item.
As the screen is elevated and must travel down to the item, there is a limitation on the size of your design in relation to the overall size of the screen - you can not print to the edges of the screen . A general rule is to have your design one third the size of your screen.
An advanced application made easy with a simple addition
The single most important thing you can do to make ‘off contact’ printing easy is to invest in a suitable screen printing jig (or at the very least the hinge set) that enables:
Correct height adjustment for each item
Perfect registration on every print
How to get the correct height for 'off contact' printing
The goal is to elevate the screen above the item to a point just before the edges of the design can not be pressed down onto the item without stretching the screen.
Place the screen into your jig, above the item to be printed
Raise the screen (approx. 3mm) so as all the screen is now elevated above your item, using spacers placed under the frame
Press down on your screen so as the design area comes in contact with the item
Increase the height slightly and check the design area can still come in contact with your item below
GOCCOclub Member Services |
As a GOCCOclub member you have a range of FREE services available, so take advantage when you can and let the GOCCOclub help you make your printing faster and simpler were ever possible.
PG Digital Imaging Service for GOCCOclub Members
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About RISO Mesh Types |
The mesh grade - 70, 135 or 200 - refers to the strand density of the screen. RISO screens are a unique combination of polyester screen mesh combined (glued) to a polyester film. It is this unique bonding technique that:Makes the screens pretensioned and able to be taken on and off frames repeatedly without distorting the design
Means clean-up ONLY possible with water, as spirits & turpentine destroy the glue - hence the screen delaminates.
The mesh types can be put into 3 broad categories:
Screen printing absorbent surfaces - t-shirts, fabrics, ceramics, wood, etc. = ScreenMaster 70Mesh
Screen printing non-absorbent surfaces - plastics, vinyl, metals, glass, etc. = ScreenMaster 135Mesh
PRINT GOCCO paper/ card printing = PRINT GOCCO Print Masters (200Mesh) + Screen printing paper with 135Mesh
There are some variations to the above guide, such as using PRINT GOCCO Print Masters for some screen printing applications i.e. Glass Etching and screen printing very small designs onto plastics/ metals/ etc.
Printing Myth #1 - The finer the mesh the better the print quality
You must consider the material you will be printing i.e. absorbent (paper/ fabric) or non-absorbent, and the type of ink you will be using.
A ceramic ink contains a milled powder mixed with a medium and can not passed through a fine 135Mesh of 200Mesh screen. Also depending on the type of printing you intend to do, you may not get a choice in the screen type i.e. PRINT GOCCO for all paper/ card printing, but for screen printing the options are different as you can use 70Mesh and 135mesh (with a suitable imaging system).
Printing Myth #2 - 'Mesh mark' is the sign of a badly imaged screen
‘Mesh mark’ - pictured right - is caused when a screen is laid against a material, normally non-absorbent such as plastic or metal, and then printed. When the ink comes through the screen, the strands of the mesh are against the surface and the ink can not spread or be absorbed - hence the patchy result in the shape of the mesh.
Printing Myth #3 - A coarse mesh allows too much ink through the screen and causes bleeding
Bleeding generally occurs when you are pressing too hard or have the angle of the squeegee too low - forcing the ink through the screen. If you are printing onto an absorbent material (or printing paper) and get blurred prints - PLEASE review your printing technique.
If the ink is running through the screen then it’s not suitable for screen printing and there is a problems with the ink - check & replace.
Hints & Tips from Members |
In a workshop I was conducting two weekends ago, we had trouble with two screens not registering the original art. All photocopies were made on the same machine, so the carbon was OK. I checked all the used lamps (flashbulbs) and they all went off. Do you have any other ideas? (Internet: Parrot Lady) The problem was the photocopier. The enlargement/ reduction percentage, even though the copier was set to 100%, has made an adjustment which has subsequently put the registration out. This is common on copiers that are old or not serviced regularly. I first discovered photocopiers do this when trying to photocopy a CMYK separation from a book and none of the layers matched up! The service technician explained that it only takes the lens to be out by 0.1mm and there will be a difference. A computer Laser Print is the best way to get original artwork where registration is essential. If you must us a photocopier, put both the originals together and hold them up to the light to check the registration beforehand. Sometimes you can adjust the photocopier for one of the originals to compensate if the enlargement/ reduction is only small but this is best done over a light box to save your eyes. |
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