I havent had too many issues not having enough colors, and I have an 8 color press. IF customers won't perfect color on sim process they are probably going to a shop with a 14 or 16 color machine anyway. There has only been one or two times that I needed an extra color.
Having an flash back or similar is pretty much useless when running simulated process. I can only imagine the problems that arise from p/f/p a sim process base.
I don't think thats 100% accurate. You see, with other people doing your seps, they make it work for what you have. That doesn't mean that those prints couldn't be better with 1 or 3 more colors.
Sure, any print that is 14 colors could also possibly be done better with 16 colors. But you gotta realize most folks don't want to pay for a 12 color simulated process print, and the ones that do don't normally deal with shops that only have 1 8 or 10 color auto. When we do simulated process we normally tell the customer that it will be the most accurate reproduction that their budget allows, and it seems at least for me that is 5-7 colors.
I see your point. I often forget that most of my experience (working in a shop) has been with large company's doing their own retail orders that have very large runs. Those types of shops and customers don't usually concern themselves with the number of colors in the art. That is to say, they don't "usually" have the sep artist try to knock a 12 color job down to 10. If it's 12, they take it to a shop that does 12 and the cost is what it is. Those that become more cost and print savvy, do start to consider the cost. In my experience with large shops and art requester's, this is very very rare.
I would guess that the average ASI distributor or event order does a specific number like 144, 500 (of one time runs) on a design. So maybe the color count is very much considered. In retail orders, you can eat that cost up a bit over time.
