Notes on Riso: Daud Sihombing's Reflective Notes on the Printing Machine as Method and Alternative Practice
Author: Daud Sihombing
Designer: Eugenius Krisna
Scope: Publishing
It all began with a simple curiosity. In 2016, Daud Sihombing discovered a photo zine titled Around the Corner by Andrea Reza, published by Binatang Press. Somewhere in the colophon, he read that the publication was printed using a machine called Riso. What is Riso, he wondered. From that question emerged a journey that eventually became the book Notes on Riso: A Printing Method and a Tool for Publishing, published by Sojanggak, a graphic design studio and publisher based in Seoul, in April 2026, in collaboration with Eugenius Krisna as graphic designer.
The book consists of three main essays: "Inside the Practice," which recounts Daud's personal observations of Riso practice; "In Indonesian Context," which positions Riso within the local publishing landscape; and "Around the Machine," which analyzes Riso as an artistic medium through economic and ecological considerations. Beyond this, he traces diverse Riso practices through a series of interviews with Riso publishers and graphic studios across continents, including Knust Press, Hand Saw Press, we make it, Can Can Press, and Sandwich Club. At the end of the book, a researcher from South Korea, Lim Kyung Yong, also contributes with a broader perspective on Riso practice.
Beyond tracing Riso practice in various contexts, Daud also compiles a personal record of how a production tool can become a medium for redefining the relationships between publishers, artists, and readers. Though the Riso machine began as a Japanese office duplicator developed for reasons of efficiency, it has now become a tool chosen for artistic considerations. The technology is simple, operational costs are low, and it uses eco-friendly vegetable-based inks. In Indonesia, exploration of this machine began around 2015 through Binatang Press in Jakarta.
From Jakarta, the trend spread to other cities. Irfan Hendrian in Bandung utilized Riso as a bridge between offset and digital printing for documenting artist exhibitions. In Yogyakarta, Kunci Copy Station saw the machine as a tool for building an alternative economy and collective editorial processes, not merely for financial gain.
Riso is no longer an experiment alone. Graphic Handler in Cirebon and Qualita Company in Jakarta have opened Riso printing services to a wider market, from artists to small businesses. The machine proves that simple technology, when properly understood, can open broader and more sustainable creative access.
Behind the common assumption that Riso publishing is inexpensive and environmentally friendly, Riso practice requires complex design decisions and production strategies. For example, the decision to choose single-color or multi-color publications that must go through time-consuming color separation experiments, considerations of the number of masters, the selection of paper type and size, and other detailed aspects that will certainly determine whether Riso results are truly economical and sustainable.
Since the mid-2000s, Riso has become the definition of sensibility in global art book fairs. Neon inks, unintended color misalignment, and the blur of ink sharpness on rough paper are considered an ethical statement against the standardized precision of large-scale offset printing. On the one hand, the book also critiques Riso aesthetics that have gradually become a predictable visual trope and a safe shortcut rather than an element that provokes more provocative discourse.
According to Daud and several interviewees in this book, the machine promises no grand transformation, but rather lowers production barriers and creates space for practices that have not yet become fixed conventions. In this way, the discourse on Riso ultimately arrives at community practice in organizing their own modes of production.
Notes on Riso is a record of how a printing machine can create alternative communities and open doors to new creative exploration.
