Method and apparatus for orienting a recording media sheet on a support surface

A method of imaging, comprising:

• (a) advancing a sheet of media with a loading device across a support surface to an imaging position, a leading edge of said sheet of media advancing substantially perpendicular to a direction of movement of said sheet of media;
• (b) driving said leading edge against a registration device having a registration axis until said sheet of media is in contact with said registration device at at least two points;
• and
• (c) exposing an image onto said sheet of media with an imaging device configured to expose an image onto said sheet of media, said image being positioned at a predetermined distance and orientation relative to said registration axis.

A method for making a printing plate on an imaging system including a registration axis formed by a first registration point and a second registration point for registering a leading edge of a plate to be recorded, comprising the steps of:

• (a) selecting a plate size in accordance with the size of an image to be recorded;
• (b) moving at least one of said first and said second registration points such that said first and said second registration points are separated by a predetermined distance according to said plate size;
• (c) advancing said leading edge across a support surface to contact said first and said second registration points;
• and
• (d) recording a latent image onto said printing plate with said imaging device, said imaging device configured to expose said image onto said sheet of media at a predetermined distance and orientation relative to said registration axis.

A method of recording images onto sheets of media of various widths supported on a support surface, each sheet of media having a first media reference edge of a known width, comprising the steps of:

• a. providing a registration device for contacting the first media reference edge at at least two points, said at least two points forming a registration axis at a known position and orientation with respect to the support surface and with respect to the images to be recorded onto the sheets of media, said registration device being capable of changing the separation between the two points;
• b. generating a signal by a controller, the signal corresponding to the width of the sheet of media to be recorded and communicating the signal to the registration device;
• c. changing the separation between the two points of the reference device in accordance with the signal to adjust width of the registration axis according to the media width;
• and,
• d. advancing the media across the reference surface in a manner which ensures that the first media reference edge contacts the registration device at the two points.