At Kodak, they at least still have a web page that is allocated to the spotless idea. I don't know if other vendors have spotless projects, I would think that Heidelberg and AGFA both have the knowledge base and tool set within the organization to make it happen (if anybody finds their product-equivalent in their web sites, please post in comments).
In case you don't know what the spotless initiative is about, and if you are too lazy to follow the link, I'll summarize: Spotless is using additional inks usually green and orange, in conjunction with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, to reproduce spots colors on the press. At Kodak (formerly Creo), the project was initiated in the early 2000s when they rolled out Staccato 10 micron.
Now in case you think this product originated from the commitee of colour-gurus pointy-heads let's-make-a-monster-product-no-one-can-implement, the idea for spotless came from Amos, former CEO of Creo. And he got the idea from visiting a customer in Belgium (whose name I forgot), who implemented a CMYKOG workflow all by themselves, and were running spot color jobs (like 10+ spot color jobs) all day on their presses, without having to swap out inks. Now while Amos is a engineer (so he likes tech things), he also has a MBA (don't hold this against him, he's still a good guy) so somehow he got ahold of the financial numbers of the spotless business and they were fantastic. This printer was running jobs at good profit and still able to undercut their competitors because of the technical advantages of the spotless workflow.
So bing! A light goes off on Amos' head and he gets the screening/color guys to duplicate the spotless project. That was about 2001 or 2002, I think. Anyhow, I'm out of the loop on what's really going on in prepress, so I don't really know if the initiative went into zombie mode (dead but nobody wanted to admit it, like the Veris) or went underground (like lenticular, very profitable but nobody wants to admit it because who needs extra competition?).
Probably one of the reason why most printers don't try to implement spotless is that you need a pressroom with disciplined pressmen who aren't stubborn boneheads. Spotless can only be implemented with FM screening and a good press profiles, so that means the pressroom can't swap out blankets according to phases of the moon or by swapping ink vendors to save a few pennies on jugs of ink. You may think I'm kidding, but I remember a hilarious story from a color management guy who spent two months onsite trying to get a good press profile. Every time he got a close, they would swap out the inks to "use up inventory in the backroom." He would then patiently explain that he couldn't make a good profile if they kept changing the inks. And they would nod, yes, yes, and one week later swap out the inks again. Finally he quit the job.
Anyhow, I'll bet for sure some printer using spotless techniques is making some good swag and is not too happy I'm writing about it: Who needs extra competition?
But hey, that's what us bloggers do.
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In 2001/2002, I worked at a plant in SLC, Utah. At the time, print buyers actually had money, so we were able to do some pretty cool stuff with the 10 micron stochastic (aka “Staccato” in Scitexican). CMYKOG on a Heidelberg SM102 is the only way to go. Until they call you up at 3:00 AM claiming that “the plates you gave us don’t match the proof”.
How the bejeezus do you make a proof on an inkjet that will ever match this? And why are they running it at 3:00 in the morning anyway?
But I digress. We never thought of attempting spot color that way. That’s a good idea! But how do you proof it?
Well, anyway, back to my drinking. Another fine post!