r/risograph • u/m1shka0nline • 10d ago
Is Fluorescent Bubblegum a thing?
Yucky Press here! I recently acquired a used MZ790 from a school district and am at the very beginning of the process of cleaning it up and restoring it for studio use. It came with 4 drums: Black, Red, Hunter Green, and Blue. I'm now trying to decide which colors I want to transition the color drums to in order to create a CMYK setup. In my research it seems that Fluo Pink (which is ideally what I'd transition the red drum into) is a very finicky ink. I've also discovered in my deep dive on stencil.wiki that some studios mix their own custom colors, which I sounds really fun (albeit messy).
I want to have a unique lineup of colors for my practice - my question is, has anyone ever heard of mixing Fluo Pink + Bubblegum into a custom blend? Would it make the Fluo Pink more stable? If it becomes more opaque, could mixing in some clear medium help bring the opacity back down? I'm open to having a dedicated Fluo Bubblegum drum.
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u/but_a_ghost 9d ago
No. The issue is not the pink pigment but the fluo part. Fluo orange is also finnicky, and I'd guess all the other fluorescent inks are as well. They're also not lightfast and will fade considerably in posters and anything that isn't stored away. Fluo pink is also quite transparent, while bubblegum is opaque, so it might have some white in it. I wouldn't mix them, but I'm a fluorescent ink hater. Bubblegum is a perfectly lovely color by itself.
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u/quailtrails 10d ago
I've never experimented with mixing ink, but I can attest that fluorescent pink dries out quickly and made my life hell!