Depending on the size of the colour cylinders, the maximum format of the risograph should be taken into account (3G: Common paper formats), since the risograph cannot print borderless. Additionally, it is important that when printing with the risograph, depending on the grammage of the paper, there needs to be a larger or smaller margin around the subject.

There should also be no areas with high ink coverage placed on the edge of the master foil so the paper does not stick to the drum too much and does not unroll with the rotation of the print cylinder, pass to the second cylinder or jam the paper ejection. While the manual for the MZ 770 specifies a margin of 5 mm at the narrow front edge of the paper, 3 mm should be kept clear at the edges of the long side and 2 mm at the rear edge of the short side. The printable area the A3 format, for example, is 413 × 291 mm: 420 mm minus a margin of 7 mm results in a printable area of 413 mm. Same with A4: 297 mm minus a margin of 6 mm results in a printable area of 291 mm. In order to get even more control over the colour separations and to achieve better, more reliable results even with high ink coverage, a minimum distance of 10 mm between (strongly) saturated colour areas and paper edge on every side edge must be observed. This results in an area of 393 × 271 mm recommended for this subject.

The slightly larger distance of the printable area at the leading edge of the paper, which is first fed into the machine, can be considered kind of a gripper edge, because after being fed into the machine, the paper is used for navigating through the machine by the wheels and trays needed for this kind of printing technique that is based on rotation.