A Dream Come True: Digital Print Embellishment Steals the Spotlight at PRINTING United 2025

By Kevin Abergel, President of Taktiful

From Niche to Mainstream: Embellishment Everywhere

Walking the show floor at PRINTING United 2025 in Orlando felt like stepping into a dream that had finally come to life. Everywhere I looked, there were printers, designers, and technology partners talking about metallics, textures, and specialty effects. For years, we in the embellishment space have been saying that the key to fighting commoditization is differentiation. This year, it was clear that message has landed.

Gone are the days when special effects were treated as gimmicks or luxury add-ons. They are now a strategic tool for business growth. Printers of every size were discussing how to incorporate digital foil, spot UV, raised coatings, and tactile finishes into their daily production. Booths across the show were covered in shimmering samples that pulled attendees in from across the aisles. You could literally see the energy shift as people began to understand that print has the power to do more than communicate. It can connect.

For me, it was emotional. I’ve spent nearly two decades advocating for digital embellishment. I’ve seen the puzzled looks, the skepticism, and the slow crawl of adoption. To finally walk into a show where everyone was talking about it like it was the hottest thing in print made me proud of how far we’ve come. This was the Taktiful dream from the start: to make print tactile, beautiful, profitable, and impossible to ignore.

The conversations told the story best. Attendees weren’t asking whether they should invest in embellishment anymore. They were asking which system to buy, which effects customers were asking for, and how to price them. The tone has shifted from curiosity to commitment. Printers are no longer afraid to say out loud that they need to stand out. They’re tired of fighting for pennies in a race to the bottom. They want work that feels premium and commands attention.

And now, finally, the technology, education, and creative confidence are all aligning to make that happen.

The Embellishment Technology Tour: Standing Room Only

If there was one moment that captured how far we’ve come, it was seeing the crowds gather for the Embellishment Technology Tour Powered by Taktiful. We created this tour to help people discover the most exciting digital enhancement technologies on the show floor. What we didn’t expect was how quickly it would explode in popularity.

Within days of announcing it, all 75 slots was full. We ended up having to buy more touring headsets and DOUBLING our touring capacity to be able to host over 150 attendees across multiple guided tours during the show. Each session became a high-energy walk through the future of print. Printers, brand managers, and designers moved together from booth to booth, discovering everything from digital foils that shimmered like jewelry to textured coatings that made packaging feel alive.

One of my favorite moments was watching attendees touch a sample that had raised spot varnish over a simple logo. You could see the instant recognition of value. Someone said to me, “This is how you stop your clients from comparing you to a budget printer.” That one line summed up the whole movement.

We structured the tour to be both educational and inspirational. Each OEM had about five minutes to demonstrate their technology, tell their story, and show samples that wowed. By the end, people were buzzing with ideas. Some literally ran back to booths afterward to ask for quotes. A few even signed orders during the show.

The tour proved what we’ve believed all along. Once people experience embellishment firsthand, they get it. It isn’t theory. It’s business. It’s opportunity. And it’s fun.

Metallics, Marvels, and the Greg Horn Collaboration

Beyond the tour, there were several highlights that perfectly showcased what digital embellishment can do when art and technology meet. One of the biggest was the Color-Logic collaboration with comic artist Greg Horn.

If you’ve ever seen Greg’s work for Marvel or DC, you know his covers already have incredible visual energy. Now imagine that same art printed with metallic effects, dimensional varnishes, and layered foils. The results were breathtaking.

Color-Logic partnered with several of their material and production allies to create limited-edition collector prints that became the talk of the show. These pieces were printed on metallic stock with white ink underlays, using advanced color effects to bring depth and light to the illustrations. Under the trade show lights, they gleamed like fine art.

People lined up to get their hands on them, and every single person who walked away holding one had the same look: awe. That’s the magic of embellishment. It takes something already great and turns it into an experience.

This collaboration showed the industry what happens when creativity meets capability. It made print feel cool again. It gave designers permission to dream bigger. And it reminded everyone that print can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with digital media when it delivers a sensory punch.

Adobe and the Mainstreaming of Workflow

When I saw Adobe at the show actively demonstrating tools for embellishment workflow, I knew something major had shifted. Their new Project Goldsmith was on display, showing how printers can now easily normalize and prepare print files for foil, spot gloss, and raised effects.

For years, file preparation was one of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption. Setting up masks, dealing with knockouts, and communicating with prepress teams was intimidating. Project Goldsmith changes that.

Seeing Adobe and their partners share a booths on-stage to demonstrate the workflow from design to print was surreal. It was the perfect signal that embellishment isn’t an outsider technology anymore. When the biggest software company in creative media invests in making it easier to produce special effects, it means mainstream adoption has arrived.

Everywhere you turned, something was glowing, glimmering, or textured. The finishing segment used to be a quiet corner of the show. This year, it was the loudest section in the room.

The FSEA Breakfast: A Morning of Ideas and Momentum

The FSEA Breakfast was another standout moment of the week. Despite the early hour, the room buzzed with energy as coffee cups clinked and conversations sparked. Moderator Jeff Peterson led a lively discussion around a theme that echoed across the entire show floor: embellishment as a true driver of value. The panel, made up of Bob Nickel of TPC Print & Packaging, Sean Roberts of Konica Minolta, and Scott Tacosik of Kurz, shared sharp insights on everything from selecting the right metallic effect for a given project to how specialty finishing continues to evolve as a creative and commercial force. It was inspiring to see the Foil & Specialty Effects Association not only celebrating metallics and coatings but actively pushing education, collaboration, and innovation forward. By the time the plates were cleared, the mood was electric. The embellishment community isn’t just growing; it’s maturing, and it’s hungry for more.

The Software Side of the Revolution

At Taktiful, we’ve always believed that the success of embellishment depends not just on the hardware, but on the ecosystem around it. The show proved that more than ever.

We used PRINTING United 2025 to showcase our growing suite of software tools that help printers succeed with embellishment. The response was overwhelming.

First, our Reaktor platform took center stage. Reaktor lets users visualize embellishments digitally before they print. You can upload artwork, toggle on simulated foil or spot varnish layers, and view an ultra-realistic 3D preview. It bridges the gap between creative intent and production reality.

Watching designers and printers test it for the first time was a joy. They instantly saw how it could eliminate costly samples, speed up approvals, and help sell concepts to clients. It’s the kind of tool we wish existed years ago, and seeing the crowd’s reaction confirmed that timing is everything.

Our flagship estimation platform, Taktify, also drew major interest. Many printers told us their biggest challenge isn’t running embellishment jobs, but pricing them. Taktify uses AI-driven market insights to recommend competitive yet profitable pricing. It helps printers stop guessing and start selling with confidence.

Hearing those success stories from users on the show floor was deeply rewarding. It means the solutions we’re building are genuinely helping the market mature.

The LP Album, the Vibe, and the Taktisphere

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Taktiful event without a little creative flair. This year, we launched something that truly embodied the spirit of the show: The 2025 Embellishment Tour LP.

Yes, a real music album. We created an entire soundtrack inspired by the technologies and people behind the digital embellishment movement. Each track was dedicated to an OEM partner and expressed their innovation through music. It ranged from hip hop to gospel to rock, and you could hear it playing at our booth throughout the event.

At first, people were confused. Then they smiled. Then they danced. It was our way of saying that embellishment isn’t just technology, it’s culture. It’s passion. It’s creativity.

We also introduced the Taktisphere, our new online community we will be launching soon for everyone obsessed with tactile print. Designers, printers, and brand pros can connect, share, and learn from each other. Watching people sign up right at the booth and immediately start swapping stories reminded me why community is so essential.

For years, this segment felt like a small circle of insiders. Now it’s growing into a vibrant, collaborative ecosystem.

A Turning Point for Print

As I left the show floor on the final day, I stood for a moment and just watched the crowd. Thousands of people, arms full of samples, were smiling and animated. They weren’t talking about who had the cheapest press or fastest click rate. They were talking about who had the best textures, the best metallics, the best creative ideas.

That’s when it hit me: this was the moment we’ve all been working toward.

Digital embellishment has moved from curiosity to credibility. From luxury to necessity. From niche to mainstream.

The path hasn’t been easy. It took years of evangelizing, demonstrating, training, and helping printers see beyond only four-colors. But now the proof is in front of us. Brand owners are demanding more tactile, emotionally resonant print. Designers are embracing the medium as an art form again. Printers are investing not just in machines but in storytelling.

Embellishment is the bridge that connects technology with human emotion. It’s the proof that print still matters, perhaps more than ever.

For me personally, PRINTING United 2025 was not just another trade show. It was validation. The dream we started chasing years ago, to make print sexy, sensory, and profitable, is becoming reality. The energy was contagious. The optimism was real.

We’ve entered a new era of print, one defined by creativity, experience, and differentiation. The fight against commoditization isn’t over, but we’ve got the tools, the talent, and the community to win it.

And if you ask me, that future looks pretty shiny.