What Is Gocco?

Print Gocco is a Japanese color screenprinting system developed in 1977 by Noboru Hayama.  Resembling a toy, the compact and completely self-contained printer is clean, quick and easy to use. The system works using flash bulbs, a carbon-based image or photocopy and an emulsion-coated screen. When the bulbs are manually flashed, the carbon in the drawing or photocopy burns the screen into a stencil. Several colors of Ink can then be applied at one time and multiples can be stamped out, as many as 100 before re-inking is needed. Fans of Print Gocco appreciate its size, cleanliness, relatively inexpensive cost, and the fact that several colors can be printed in one “pass.”

gocco history

1977: The japanese company Riso introduces the first Print Gocco in Japan, marketing it as a great way to make your own personalized New Year’s greeting cards. Explosive domestic sales and popularity ensue.

1978: Riso first launches a larger Print Gocco card-making model.

1980′s: Sales of Print Gocco systems continue to soar in Japan.

1990′s: Sales of Print Gocco decline in the Japanese market as personalized greeting cards can easily be made with home computers and printers. Meanwhile, Gocco’s introduction to foreign markets begins.

2005: Riso ceases production on Print Gocco.

2005: Savegocco.com was started in 2005 by artist/printmaker Jill Bliss in the hopes that a letter-writing/petition campaign would encourage Riso to reverse its decision to drop Gocco.

2008: Riso shipped their last stock of supplies to loyal vendors, and closed its doors on Gocco forever.

2009: Savegocco.com was resurrected by Katie Stephenson in the hopes that fans could retrofit, reinvent or otherwise keep Gocco alive themselves.

Read the complete history of gocco and Riso, the parent company

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