Lithographic printing plate support and presensitized plate

Abstract

Disclosed is a lithographic printing plate support obtainable by subjecting an aluminum plate to an electrochemical graining treatment with an aqueous solution containing hydrochloric acid, anodizing treatment and alkali metal silicate treatment at least, wherein: a surface of the support has a grained shape in which large pits with a mean aperture diameter of 2 to 10 μm and small pits with a mean aperture diameter of 0.05 to 0.8 μm overlap with each other, with the mean ratio of depth to aperture diameter of the small pits being 0.2 to 0.6; a surface area difference ΔS50 defined by equation (1): ΔS50=(Sx50−S050)/S050×100 (%)   (1) in which Sx50 is the actual area of a 50 μm square region of the surface as determined by three-point approximation from three-dimensional data obtained by measuring the region with an atomic force microscope at 512×512 points and S050 is the geometrically measured area of the same region, is 20 to 40%; the alkali metal silicate treatment is performed using an aqueous solution of pH 11.5 to 13.0 which contains an alkali metal silicate; and an amount of Si atoms deposited to the surface is 3.0 to 15.0 mg/m2. The presensitized plate according to the present invention allows not only the press life but also the resistance to scumming by ink spreading, resistance to scumming by leaving and resistance to scumming by failed deletion, and the water visibility as well, to be excellent, even if an FM screen is used for halftone.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.