Wide format printing has long suffered from an identity problem. Ask someone outside the industry what it means, and they will probably mention banners, signs, vehicle wraps or oversized posters. Those applications remain important, but during the inaugural Taktisphere XL Live event, a panel of experienced print professionals argued that defining wide format by size alone misses the larger opportunity. Hosted by Jason Leonard of Neenah, “WTF Is WF?” brought together Anneliese

In a keynote built around one uncomfortable question, Kevin Abergel asked printers to consider how many jobs they had lost in the past year because another company came in cheaper. Then he pushed the question further: How many of those competitors were probably making little or no money on the work? That familiar race to the bottom formed the starting point for “The Premium Problem,” a presentation Abergel first delivered in Denver and later shared with the Taktisphere commun

Xerox Best of the Best winners Zoltán Kanovits and José Dapino used a live unboxing to show how fifth- and sixth-color printing can move printers away from price competition and toward premium, tactile experiences. The limitations of a webcam became part of the story during the July 14 Taktisphere Live. As the hosts tilted metallic calendars, black-on-black invitations and fluorescent printed cards toward their cameras, they repeatedly offered the same caveat: the screen coul

For years, the print embellishment conversation has been dominated by what happens when light hits the sheet. Foil flashes. Spot UV glows. Raised varnish catches the eye from across the table. Designers, printers and brand owners have learned to speak in the language of shine, shimmer and shelf appeal. But at the latest Taktisphere Digital Embellishment Designer Meetup, Matt Redbear made the case that the industry may be looking at only half the story. The real magic, he argu

For years, the print industry has treated sustainability and profitability as if they were sitting on opposite sides of the table. One was positioned as the responsible choice, the other as the business choice. The assumption was simple: if a printer wanted to be greener, it would need to spend more, accept lower margins, change materials, complicate production, or sacrifice operational efficiency. At Taktisphere Live’s “Profit Is the New Green” discussion, that old assumptio

The digital embellishment market has spent the last several years evolving from a niche conversation into one of the most active growth segments in print. That shift was on full display during a recent Taktisphere Live session featuring Taktiful’s Kevin Abergel and Eric Vessels alongside FSEA Executive Director Jeff Peterson, who joined the community discussion to preview the upcoming FSEA Print Embellishment Conference. The session offered more than a simple event preview. I

There are moments in every industry when a niche application suddenly evolves into a legitimate innovation driver. For digital embellishment, trading cards may be becoming exactly that. What was once viewed by many commercial printers as a small collector category has rapidly transformed into one of the most creatively aggressive and technologically demanding segments in print. That reality became increasingly clear during a recent Taktisphere Live session titled Legendary Dr

Watch the Launch Party Replay In an industry where visual impact is everything, digital print embellishments have long suffered from a surprisingly simple problem: they are difficult to sell without being physically seen. At a recent live event hosted inside the Taktiful community platform, that problem took center stage. The occasion was the official launch of Reaktor, a new browser-based visualization platform designed to transform how embellishments are presented, approved

The unboxing began, as many do, with curiosity. A sealed package sat on the table during a live session inside the Taktisphere, the fast-growing digital embellishment community built around designers, printers, and brand strategists. But within moments, it became clear this was not just another product reveal. What unfolded was a layered demonstration of how paper, structure, and embellishment converge to create something far more powerful than print alone. Hosted by Taktiful

There is a moment in almost every embellishment conversation where things quietly go off track. It usually happens right after the design is approved, right before production begins, when someone asks a seemingly harmless question: where should we add foil? It sounds reasonable. It sounds practical. It is also the wrong place to start. That underlying tension sat at the heart of a recent Digital Embellishment Designer Meetup, where a group of designers, production experts, an

The recent Taktisphere Live session featuring Harris & Bruno’s unboxing of their “Out of This World Embellishments” sample kit was positioned as a simple reveal. In practice, it served as something more useful: a clear look at how far digital embellishment has progressed, and where most of the industry is still falling short. The session brought together a mix of printers, designers, OEM teams, and operators to walk through a set of samples that were originally introduced at

When Al Kennickell took the virtual stage inside Taktisphere to talk about “avoiding the plastic look” in inkjet-based dimensional effects, he did more than share a technical trick. He opened a window into the kind of experimentation, cross-industry collaboration, and practical curiosity that is quietly pushing digital embellishment into a more mature phase. The session, hosted as part of Taktisphere’s new member-generated live series, centered on a deceptively simple challen

In today’s competitive print market, simply buying a new embellishment press and hoping customers line up is a risky bet. Print embellishments, like digital foils and spot UV coatings to raised textures and metallic effects, have evolved from gimmicky add-ons into strategic tools for business growth. However, success with these specialty enhancements doesn’t happen by magic. It requires a well-crafted business plan that goes beyond the shiny equipment and spells out how you’l

The Taktisphere has always been about more than showing off shiny samples and talking about what is possible in digital embellishment. At its core, it is about bringing the people in this space closer together so they can learn from each other, challenge each other, and help push the industry forward. That is why we are excited to officially open up the Taktisphere Live submission page and invite the community to step onto the stage. This means operators, OEMs, designers, pri

In a printing industry that has spent years worrying about labor shortages, retiring pressroom veterans, and the steady disappearance of traditional finishing know-how, the fear sounds perfectly reasonable. A shop looks at digital embellishment, sees gleaming foil, raised texture, tight registration, and premium visual effects, and reaches the same cautious conclusion: this must require highly specialized operators. That assumption was the target of the latest session in the

Watch Unboxing Event Replay Here The Taktisphere Live Unboxing Event with Andrew Gunn from Fujifilm did something the print industry rarely pulls off. It made print feel spontaneous, modern, and genuinely engaging. Instead of another scripted demo or slide-heavy presentation, the event leaned into curiosity and real-time discovery, creating a format that felt closer to a product launch in the tech world than anything typically seen in commercial print. At its core, the conce

Mythbusting Digital Print Embellishments Myth #2: “My Customers Aren’t Asking for This” Spend enough time in the print industry, especially around shops that are evaluating or have recently invested in digital embellishment, and you start to hear the same sentence repeated with almost ritual consistency. It usually shows up right after the initial excitement fades, after the samples have been admired, after the capabilities have been explained, and after the inevitable questi

On a casual St. Patrick’s Day conversation that started with bracket picks and green shirts, something more meaningful unfolded. What began as a friendly exchange between Kevin Abergel and Michael Cox quickly turned into a revealing window into where the label and packaging industry is headed, and more importantly, why. Cox, newly appointed as Director of Category Strategy for Packaging and Label at Konica Minolta, represents a particular kind of industry voice. Not just expe

A Real Look Inside the Latest Digital Embellishment Designer Meetup with Matt Redbear The latest Digital Embellishment Designer Meetup with Matt Redbear did not feel like a webinar, a training session, or even a structured event. It felt like a room full of people who are deep in the work, comparing notes in real time, trying to make sense of a space that is evolving faster than most of the industry can keep up with. There was no need for a formal setup because everyone arriv

Register for Next Weeks Mythbusters Session Here: https://taktisphere.com/c/webinars/mythbusters2 In the printing industry, certain phrases seem to resurface every few years whenever a new technology emerges. One of the most persistent in recent discussions around digital finishing and enhancement is the claim that digital embellishment is simply “too expensive.” At first glance, the concern appears reasonable. Digital embellishment systems introduce new costs, materials, and