Influence of the Imaging Drum Surface Geometry on Prints Quality

The development of electronic hardware and software, data manipulation and the usage of new materials and laser technology has resulted in systems that image directly from computer to printing plates (CtP). Nowadays there are many different CtP systems on the market (platesetters) and many producers which offer different imaging laser technologies, different active coatings on the printing plates and different platesetter architectures for plate imaging. The comparison of the quality of the printing elements on the printing plates and screening elements on the prints according to the position of the plate on the rotary drum with the internal and external drum imaging system was the aim of this paper. Results obtained in this research have shown that differences in the mechanical characteristics of the printing elements on the printing plates and on the prints with internal and external CtP systems are insignificant. Differences are measurable, but the analysis of the visual assessment has shown that they do not have any significant influence on the final visual appearance of colour.