Each button costs: $0.35 with a maximum of 100 buttons/order.
Templates can be found on our Campus Office site on Blackboard.
Please keep in mind that each template is slightly different. There are specific application directions in each version. Pay attention if there are layers to be deleted.
Remember that because the buttons are small (1.25”), any text that you include on the edges may be difficult to read and/or folded over once the button is made.
By default, the IC prints all button orders on our Hammermill 28# color copy paper.
If you’d like something different, keep in mind that paper must be 28# bond (or 70# text) or less. We will not be able to print on card stock.
General turnaround times for button making is 4 business days.
The Imaging Center can cut up to 3” in sheets of paper at one time.
The standard turnaround time for the cutting & binding processes is 24 hours (one business day). During midterms and finals, turnaround times may increase. Your job will be processed in the order that it was received.
Make sure to save your file with crop marks and bleed to ensure that your type or image isn’t trimmed off. The Imaging Center has a cutting tolerance of 1/16”. Anything that comes within 1/16” (0.063”) of the edge of the trim line could potentially be cut off. Be sure to place all elements more than 1/16” (0.063”) away from the edge of the design.
There is a minimum count of 15 sheets of paper in order to use this service.
The IC will not use the stack cutter to trim tiling jobs, business cards, or stickers.
The Imaging Center will not stack cut books printed off-site (blurb, lulu, etc.). The IC will also not stack cut-through mat board, foam core, cardboard. If off-site material is cut or bound incorrectly by an IC Tech, the IC will reprint materials on Imaging Center stock at no cost.
All pages must be the same length; the Imaging Center cannot guarantee that the binding machines can evenly punch through sketchbooks and/or tracing paper.
The IC does reserve the right to deny submitted collections of various papers and sizes.
The Imaging Center also offers spiral or wire binding up to 11” in length. Your booklet must be submitted with the pages in the correct order and orientation from front cover to back cover.
Make sure to save your file with crop marks and bleed to ensure that your type or the image isn’t trimmed off. The Imaging Center has a cutting tolerance of 1/16”. Anything that comes within 1/16” (0.063”) of the edge of the trim line could potentially be cut off. Be sure to place all elements more than 1/16” (0.063”) away from the edge of the design.
Covers must also be trimmed to size. If you are submitting an already printed book, IC staff can give you covers to trim to size. If the booklet is being printed in the IC and then trimmed, the IC will include the covers in the stack.
Give yourself an extra 1/4” (0.25”) margin on the bound edge when designing booklets.
The standard turnaround time for the cutting & binding processes is 24 hours (one business day). During midterms and finals, turnaround times may increase. Your job will be processed in the order that it was received.
All pages must be the same length; the Imaging Center cannot guarantee that the binding machines can evenly punch through sketchbooks and/or tracing paper.
The IC does reserve the right to deny submitted collections of various papers and sizes.
The more you use the Riso the easier it will become to design with Riso in mind. Here are some design tips to diminish Riso printing variations:
Lower ink opacities to <80%-95%.
Set overlapping colors and color blocks and background colors to <80% opacity.
Limit the number of colors you use. (Four colors at 100% = 400% saturation.)
Leave the top 2” of your image blank, or lightly inked.
Use font size 6pt or higher.
Surplus Prints
You may have extra copies of some pages in your order. For Riso prints, the IC starts a print run with a 10-20% excess. This is because a certain number of prints jam, or misregister beyond a ¼”, and we throw these out.
However, we will include any extra copies that go through undamaged. This is why you may have a different number of copies than you ordered. For example, if you order 10 copies of a 3-page book, you may have 12 copies of pages 1-2 and 10 copies of page 3.
You will not always have extra prints, so make sure you order the correct amount without accounting for extra copies.
There is No “Perfect” in Riso
There are some common imperfections in a Risograph print. These imperfections are part of the Riso printing process
Registration Marks
You may see crosshair or crop marks in the four corners of your prints. The IC adds these to help the printer align the color separations in your print. If you have a “full bleed” print, there will probably not be registration marks. You can add in the notes to leave them out. However, the registration is more likely to be askew without them.
Ink smudges
Riso ink dries through absorption. Similar to a newspaper, Riso prints never fully cure. Rubbing the ink with your finger, even once” dry”, can result in smudging. Ink can also transfer from one sheet to the next during the printing process.
Roller Marks
Roller marks typically show up as a rhythmic line down the center of the paper towards the top. They are more common in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th color passes on the Riso, but they can happen on a 1st pass.
Misregistration
Each color is printed separately, so colors rarely match up perfectly. We aim to keep our registration within 3/16” between colors, and 1/4“ for double siding.
Cleaning up a Finished Print
Riso ink marks can sometimes be removed with light erasing. Prints that will be heavily handled (e.g. book covers, or flipbooks) can be sprayed with fixatives to help prevent smudging.
For more information on Riso printing, check out our complete Riso Guide.
Risograph & Imaging Center Technician: Teddy in Winter 2021
When designing artwork in Adobe Illustrator, make sure you are only using the Pantone spot color swatches. Do not try to create your own spot colors. The automated color separations consistently recognize Pantone spot colors. The swatches that we have available also are clearly labeled so you’ll always know what colors you are using.
Pull up the print menu in Illustrator: File > Print or ⌘P
Mac Users: For the Printer, select Adobe PostScript File. This will allow you to “print” to a pdf.
Set Media Size to 11″ x 17″ or 8.5″ x 11″, depending on the size of your document.
For the PPD, select any printer that you have installed on your computer. If you don’t have any printers on your laptop, (or you don’t have an 11×17 printer installed on your laptop) install the Xerox Print Driver found on our Drives & Downloads page
PC users: For the Printer, select Adobe PDF. This will allow you to print to a pdf.
Set Media Size to 11″ x 17″ or 8.5″ x 11″, depending on the size of your document.
Marks & Bleeds Menu
Check “All Printer’s Marks”
Select “Use Document Bleed Settings.”
If you use the Illustrator template, your document should be exactly 11”x 17” or 8.5” x 11” with bleed. This depends on the template size you chose to make your work. Template files have a 1/2” bleed on all sides.
Output Menu
Change the Mode from Composite to Separations (Host-Based).
In the Document Ink Options, make sure that the print icon is on for the Pantone spot colors you are using and off for all of the Process/CMYK colors.
If the process colors are checked on, this means you have something in your file that is set up for CMYK. This is not a viable printing option for the Risograph.
Advanced Menu
Change the Overprints option to Preserve.
Check on “Discard White Overprint.”. Click Save
This will create a postscript or .ps file. Open in Acrobat Distiller or Preview to convert the file to a pdf.
Save the file as a pdf. Your colors should be separated into black and white pages with the Pantone number listed at the top of each page.
If I want to switch out the color of a plate (print on a blue plate using the teal drum), do I need to alter and re-save my file?
No. The printer reads your plate as a grayscale file and prints in whatever color is loaded into the machine.
Is this the only way to save a Photoshop file?
No. There are a lot of ways to prepare a Photoshop file. You are welcome to research and use other methods on your own.
Troubleshooting
I can’t add a new adjustment layer to my file
Once you add spot colors and/or switch to Multichannel mode, you cannot add any more adjustment layers. However, you can make channel adjustments using Image > Adjustments > Levels (or Curves).
If you want to make major adjustments to your file, go back to CMYK or RGB mode and make the adjustments. Note that this will delete the spot colors that you’ve already made. But if you are making drastic changes, it is better to do so in CMYK or RGB. After you’ve made your changes, repeat your preferred process of color separation.
The Multichannel or CMYK mode is grayed out
Some of the color modes won’t convert between each other. You may need to switch to grayscale first, and then switch to your chosen color mode. Grayscale will discard color information, so you will need to re-color if you use it as an in-between mode.
Tips
Double-sided printing tips
There will always be roller marks when double-siding. But they can be minimal if you take the following steps
Print the side with the least amount of ink coverage first.
Bring back your opacity to 80% across the board.
Roller marks tend to appear towards the top and center of the page. The more ink in that area, the more prevalent the roller marks.
Interactive Pieces
Anything that is being handled a lot (like a flipbook or resume) should be at 80% max.
Each channel needs to be its own separate pdf file. The easiest way to do this is to split the channels. First, save your work.
Split your channels using the Channels menu
Photoshop will generate 3 separate grayscale files.
Save each as a pdf.
Combine these newly separated pdfs into one single pdf file with a screenshot of your composite image. You are now ready to print in the Imaging Center!
If you prefer to add the Riso colors manually, be sure to add them as SPOT PANTONE colors
Save your document as a new file.
Note: these methods all require switching your color mode and deleting channels, which can be a destructive workflow (e.g., layers get flattened or color information is discarded). When working with channels, it is difficult to revert back to the previous look. It is best to keep your final piece, with all its layers and edits, as a separate file.
At this point (one way or another) all your colors should be divided into channels:
None of these is a perfect conversion, so you may want to make some adjustments directly to the channels.
If you are happy with your conversion, skip to Split Channels!
Adjust Color Using the Brush Tool
Color range selection doesn’t deal with blended or overlapped colors very well. You may want to go back in with a brush and fill in (or remove) areas on each channel.
Select the spot channel you want the change.
Set your foreground color as black and background color as white.
Use the brush tool to paint in or remove color.
Black adds color and white erases. Grey can be used to paint in a lower opacity.
Example: we added teal with the brush tool
If you are happy with your conversion, skip to Split Channels!
Change the Value Using Curves
Select all your channels and open up the Curves Adjustment. Sometimes the grayscale image is too light. This allows you to control the luminosity of each color.
Menu Bar > Image > Adjustments > Curves…
Example: we brightened our image by adjusting the curves
If you are happy with your conversion, skip to Split Channels!
Change Hues Using Levels
Select all your channels and open up the Levels Adjustment. This allows you to control the intensity of each color. You can adjust your hue by adjusting the levels. The color usually needs to be adjusted when converted from CMY to BRY:
Menu Bar > Image > Adjustments > Levels…
Example: we shifted the hue of this image by adjusting the levels
If you are happy with your conversion, skip to Split Channels!
This version involves working with color systems. Rather than print every single color in your image, most printers use process colors, such as CMYK.
Set your color space to Working CMYK
Menu Bar > Edit > Convert to Profile… >
Destination Space: Working CMYK – U.S. Web coated (SWAP) v.2
You can print with CMYK channels by using Blue, Red, Yellow, and Black (BRYK). However, we recommend eliminating the Black channel through the following method. This will leave you with a three-color CMY (or BRY) print.
CMY / BRY printing
CMYK process printing creates roughly half of its blacks using the color black, and the other half using a combination of the other three colors. We can use the CMY channels to cover part of the shadows and black portions of the print.
Using the Channel Mixer, you can increase the amount of black information covered by each of the three channels.
Channel Mixing
Select all your channels. While keeping all channels selected, turn off the visibility for the black channel. Notice the value difference when you turn it off the black channel. You will try and simulate this value level using the other three channels.
Open the Channel Mixer Menu Bar > Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer… >
Output Channels Switch between the different Output Channels (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) to see how the Source Channels change with each color.
You can see that the sliders are all set to 0% for all colors except their own. For example, on the Cyan Output Channel, the sliders are set as follows: Cyan 100%, Magenta 0%, Yellow 0%, Black 0%)
Adding Black information to your CMY colors
Starting with Cyan, move the black source channel slider up. (e.g. Move the Black slider from 0% to 50%. This will increase the black content printed on the Cyan channel. You will see the color mix into your piece in the background.
Repeat this step with Magenta and Yellow.
Convert CMYK channels to BRY Spot Colors
Change your mode to Multichannel
Menu Bar > Image > Mode > Multichannel
Delete the black channel from the Channels panel.
Convert CMY channels to Riso BRY spot colors
Double-click on a channel, and use the eye dropped to select the corresponding Riso color.
Cyan > RISO BLUE/3005 U | Magenta > RISO RED/185 U | Yellow > RISO YELLOW/Yellow U
If you are happy with your conversion, skip to Split Channels
