Printing plate making apparatus and printing plate making method

A printing plate making apparatus configured to scan a recording medium with a light beam at a predetermined pixel pitch, thereby engraving a surface of the recording medium to make a printing plate, wherein:

• the beam diameter of the light is larger than the pixel pitch;
• and
• when scanning an adjacent region adjacent to a convex region which is a region of a surface of the recording medium that is to be left in a convex shape, the printing plate making apparatus is configured to set the intensity of the light beam so that the exposure energy of the light beam in the convex region is equal to or less than the threshold engraving energy that is a least exposure energy required for engraving the recording medium;
• and
• outside the adjacent region, the printing plate making apparatus is configured to set the intensity of the light beam so that the exposure energy is equal to or higher than the exposure energy in the adjacent region.