Relief printing plate having projections in non-image areas

Abstract

A printing plate comprising a support, reliefs formed thereon as an image area, and from about 20 to about 4,000/cm.sup.2 small projections thereon in non-image areas, the height of the reliefs being at least 0.05 mm larger than that of the small projections, and a method for making a printing plate which comprises: A. superimposing a photosensitive resin layer having a thickness of at least 0.06 mm on a support, which is at least semi-transparent to actinic light, in intimate contact therewith; B. exposing the resulting assembly to actinic light through an image-bearing transparency from the side of the photosensitive resin layer; C. exposing the assembly to actinic light through a dot-image-bearing transparency having a transparent halftone dot area in a proportion of 1 to 40% from the side of the support to thereby form reliefs on the support, as image areas, and a number of small projections having a height of at least 0.01 mm and being lower than the height of reliefs, in non-image areas, wherein steps (b) and (c) may be conducted in the order: (b) and then (c); or (c) and then (b); or simultaneously.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.