Apparatus for exposure of printing plates using signals to offset image incline distortion

An apparatus for exposing a printing plate wound around a drum to spirally record image information therein in the form of band strips, with a plurality of image elements recorded in a band width, in a single beam system for recording image data of one band width dot by dot, comprising:

• a printing plate wound around a drum in the form of a right circular cylinder,
• an exposing means comprising an acoustic-optical deflector to record image information in the form of a band strip on said printing plate by means of a light beam,
• a moving mechanism to move said exposing means comprising the acoustic-optical deflector in relation to said drum in the direction of the drum axis by a distance of one band width per revolution of the drum,
• a circuit to generate an incline distortion offsetting signal in a sawtooth wave pattern having the same cycle as that of the rotation of the drum with the initial position of recording on the band as starting point, and
• a deflection signal generating circuit which causes the single beam to vibrate and to be deflected with one band width being one cycle,
• wherein a mixture signal of a deflection signal from said deflection signal generating circuit and said incline distortion offsetting signal is applied to the exposing means comprising the acoustic-optical deflector to deflect the light beam in sequence in the opposite direction to the moving direction of said moving mechanism until the light beam is distorted by one band width per revolution of the drum, thereby recording an undistorted complete printing image.