Method of lithographic printing from a reusable aluminum support

A lithographic printing method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a lithographic support having a hydrophilic surface;
• (b) applying on the hydrophilic surface an image recording layer which comprises hydrophobic thermoplastic polymer particles;
• (c) image-wise exposing the image recording layer to heat or light thereby inducing coalescence of the hydrophobic thermoplastic polymer particles at exposed areas;
• (d) developing the image recording layer, thereby obtaining a printing master containing a lithographic image;
• (e) producing a plurality of printed copies by supplying ink to the lithographic image of the printing master and transferring the ink from the printing master to paper;
• (f) recycling the lithographic support by erasing the lithographic image;
• (g) using the recycled lithographic support in a next cycle comprising steps (a) to (e) and optionally also (f) and (g);
• characterized in that the lithographic support is a grained and anodized aluminum support of which the hydrophilic surface has a surface roughness, expressed as arithmetical mean center-line roughness Ra, which is less than 0.45 μm and which comprises more than 3.5 g/m2 of aluminum oxide at the surface.