Hydrophilic copolymers and their use in reprography

Abstract

The invention relates to a hydrophilic copolymer having the general structure: ##STR1## in which R.sup.1 denotes H, CH.sub.3 or C.sub.2 H.sub.5, R.sup.2 denotes an alkyl or cycloalkyl radical having 1 to 17 carbon atoms, R.sup.3 denotes CH.sub.3, C.sub.2 H.sub.5 or C.sub.3 H.sub.7, m is 2, 3 or 4 and n, o, p denote the fractions of the monomer units having acidic side groups, neutral, non-ionizable monomer units and monomer units having basic side groups respectively, in mol %, with n+o+p=100 mol %, with the proviso that n and p are each .gtoreq.2 mol %, wherein the copolymer is a linear copolymer having a random structure of monomer units. The copolymer is useful as a hydrophilizing agent for lithographic and offset printing plates.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.