26 email: editor@printmonthly.co.uk Issue 358 - January | February 2026 UNDER THE HOOD | VIVID RAZAR Sometimes we can’t see the blinkers we’re wearing and keep on doing things the way they’ve always been done, even as new tools and possibilities creep into daily usage. Finishing has been around as long as printing has, and even the idea of digital special effects printing, now more often referred to as ‘embellishment’, has notched up at least a couple of decades. But so far, the equipment to carry out the respective processes has been separate, with digital ‘die-cutters’ and multi-finishers on one side and ‘embellishment presses’ that could apply spot UV and usually foil too, on the other. Ne’er the Twain Die-cutters and embellishment presses were once separate, until September 2025 when Vivid Laminating Systems used The Print Show as the platform to launch the Razar, a combination of a digital spot UV printer and flatbed cutter and creaser based on the company’s established VeloBlade line. Vivid director, Lewis Evans says the idea to combine these functions into one machine came to him while on holiday in the Greek island of Mykonos in the summer of 2022, to the immediate acclaim of his colleagues. The intervening period spent turning the idea into a sellable product was extended by a certain degree of (probably justifiable) paranoia about the idea being copied before the necessary patents could be secured, which limited the choice of development partners that Vivid felt comfortable working with and resulted in various things having to be developed in-house from scratch. Evans estimates this added around 18 months to the development process. So, what do you get if you buy a Razar? On the finishing side, you have a cutter and creaser that can handle sheets up to B1 (1000 x 770mm) in size, with a range of cutPutting digital spot UV printing in the same box as flatbed cutting and creasing is one of those ideas that seems obvious in retrospect, but Vivid thought of it first. Michael Walker traces the path from holiday inspiration to trade show launch Vivid’s New “Razar Sharp” Digital Spot UV and Cutter Michael Walker is a trade journalist, technical writer, and editor with over 37 years’ experience in the print, prepress, photography, and digital imaging sectors, with a particular interest in the digital transformation of processes. In addition to editing Desktop Publishing Today and Digital Printer magazines, he is co-author with Neil Barstow of Getting Colour Right (Ilex Press, 2004) and Practical Colour Management for Photographers and Digital Image Makers (2009, self-published e-book) and winner of a Communicators in Business Gold Award. Vivid director Lewis Evans says the idea to combine these functions into one machine came to him while on holiday in the Greek island of Mykonos in the summer of 2022
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjM0NDIxOA==