CTP plate, or Computer-to-Plate, is a special plate used in the printing industry. It allows the figures, pictures or pages edited in the electronic pre-press processing system or color desktop system to be transferred directly to the printing machine for printing without the need of subsequent plate making process. CTP plate is a high-end product of PS plate, widely used in offset printing plates such as sun-picture PS plate, heat-sensitive CTP plate, light-sensitive CTP plate, UV-CTP plate, and so on.

Types of CTP plate:

There are four main types of CTP plates classified according to the imaging principle of plate making: photographic system CTP plates, thermal system CTP plates, violet laser system CTP plates and other system CTP plates. Among them, the photosensitive system CTP plate includes silver salt diffusion plate, high sensitivity resin plate and silver salt/PS plate composite plate; the thermal system CTP plate includes thermal cross-linking plate, thermal ablation plate and thermal transfer plate.

Advantages of CTP plates:

High sensitivity and resolving power:

CTP plate has high sensitivity (1~3μJ/cm2) and resolving power, wide spectral response, plus the number of mesh lines up to 300 lines / inch, good dot reproducibility, dot coverage of 1% to 99%. This makes the CTP plate able to accurately restore the image and text information in the digital file to ensure the clarity and quality of the print.

Excellent quality of the printing plate:

CTP plates have excellent quality of the printing plate, short exposure time, and the development method of the printing plate is the same as the traditional method. This improves production efficiency, reduces operational difficulties, and also ensures the stability and consistency of the printing plate.

Low plate price:

Compared to traditional plate making methods, CTP plates are less expensive and have a print resistance of at least 250,000 impressions. This gives CTP plates a significant advantage in cost control, especially for high-volume printing operations.

Environmental protection and energy saving:

CTP plate reduces the use of chemicals in the plate making process, reducing environmental pollution. At the same time, due to the high efficiency of plate making, also reduces energy consumption.

Easy to operate:

The plate making process of CTP plate is highly automated and easy to operate. Through the computer direct control of plate making equipment, reducing manual intervention, improving the accuracy and efficiency of plate making.

To summarize, CTP plate has been widely used in the printing industry for its advantages of high sensitivity, high resolution, excellent plate quality, low price and environmental protection and energy saving.