Plate making process with novel use of surfactant

In a plate-making process comprising the steps of (a) imagewise exposing a presensitized plate comprising an aluminum support having thereon a light-sensitive layer, (b) developing said imagewise exposed presensitized plate to remove either the exposed area or the unexposed area of said light-sensitive layer to reveal the surface of said aluminum support and (c) subjecting said developed plate without conducting water washing to a process selected from the group consisting of (i) application of a developing ink, (ii) retouching process and (iii) gumming process, the improvement which comprises processing the developed plate with an aqueous solution consisting essentially of a surfactant between step (b) and (c).