Risograph Generator — Free Online Riso Stencil Print

How to make a Risograph effect online

Drop a photo onto the canvas, paste it, or click to choose one. It never leaves your browser.
Pick Risograph, then lower Detail for a coarser, more obviously printed screen, or raise it to keep photographic detail.
Export the PNG. No account, no watermark.

How the Risograph effect works

A Risograph is a stencil duplicator: each colour is burned onto its own master and printed as a separate pass. Because the paper moves between passes, the plates never line up perfectly, and the inks are semi-transparent soy-based spot colours rather than process CMYK. Those two facts — misregistration and ink translucency — are what the eye actually reads as "riso", far more than the palette does.

This filter reproduces the process rather than imitating the result. The image is converted from RGB to CMYK coverage, and each of the four plates is screened at its own angle — roughly +15.5 degrees, -15.5 degrees, 0 for yellow and 44.7 degrees — so the overlaps form a rosette instead of a moire. Each plate is then offset by a small, plate-dependent amount, exactly like paper drift between passes. Where two plates overlap, the inks multiply rather than replace, which is why riso greens and purples appear that no single ink contains.

Plate	Ink	Screen angle
C	Teal	about +15.5 degrees
M	Orange-red	about -15.5 degrees
Y	Yellow	0 degrees
K	Deep green-black	about 44.7 degrees

The paper is never pure white. It sits at a warm off-white, and a low-amplitude grain runs across the whole frame, because uncoated stock never takes ink evenly. Lower the detail slider for a coarser screen and a more obviously printed result; raise it to keep photographic detail. Everything renders locally with Canvas 2D and exports a PNG up to a 1400px long edge.

Best for

Zine covers and inside pages
Gig posters and event flyers
Previewing a riso look before paying for a print run (the export is one flattened PNG, not separate plates)
Album art and editorial illustration

> Examples

The same illustration run through this page's filters at their default settings — rendered by the exact engine above, not mock-ups.

Illustration of two travellers in straw hats crossing a wind-swept grassy hillside — original image before any filter — Beforeoriginal, no filter

Illustration of two travellers in straw hats crossing a wind-swept grassy hillside, after the Risograph filter — CMYK halftone screens with registration offset on warm paper — RisographCMYK halftone screens with registration offset on warm paper

Illustration of two travellers in straw hats crossing a wind-swept grassy hillside, after the Dotcross filter — halftone dots that turn into crosses in the shadows — Dotcrosshalftone dots that turn into crosses in the shadows

Illustration of two travellers in straw hats crossing a wind-swept grassy hillside, after the Paper filter — printed onto textured paper — Paperprinted onto textured paper

Close crop of the two straw-hat travellers walking through tall green grass — original image before any filter — Beforeoriginal, no filter

Close crop of the two straw-hat travellers walking through tall green grass, after the Risograph filter — CMYK halftone screens with registration offset on warm paper — RisographCMYK halftone screens with registration offset on warm paper

Close crop of the two straw-hat travellers walking through tall green grass, after the Dotcross filter — halftone dots that turn into crosses in the shadows — Dotcrosshalftone dots that turn into crosses in the shadows

Close crop of the two straw-hat travellers walking through tall green grass, after the Paper filter — printed onto textured paper — Paperprinted onto textured paper

> Frequently Asked

What is a Risograph print?

A Risograph is a stencil duplicator that prints one spot colour at a time, each from its own master. The inks are semi-transparent, the registration between passes is imperfect, and the paper is usually uncoated — which together give riso its recognisable texture.

How is a riso effect different from a normal CMYK halftone?

Process CMYK aims for accurate registration and predictable colour. Riso does the opposite: plates drift between passes and the inks are translucent spot colours that multiply where they overlap, producing mixes no single ink contains.

Why are the screen angles different for each plate?

If every plate used the same angle, the four dot grids would align and create a strong moire. Offsetting them by roughly 15 degrees, with yellow at zero, turns the overlap into a fine rosette instead.

Is this Risograph generator free?

Yes. No account and no watermark. The separation runs in your browser with Canvas 2D and exports a PNG up to a 1400px long edge, and your image is never uploaded.

Which photos suit the riso look best?

Images with clear shapes and a few strong tonal areas. Because the palette collapses to four inks, busy low-contrast photographs lose their subject, while posters, portraits and graphic compositions gain from it.

Images are processed in your browser and never uploaded. The site keeps anonymous usage analytics (page views, chosen filter, file size) — never pixel data.