This study investigated the printing and wear characteristics of a popular laser exposed plate, the DuPont Howson Silverlith plate, by imaging one half of the plate in an imagesetter and the other half in a contact frame with a halftone film. The purpose of the investigation was to determine whether the method of imaging had an effect on plate durability when run on a press. The comparison between the digital and the film halftones was done at 150 Ipi. The dot areas on the plate were measured twice; once before and once after a press run of 100,000 impressions. Measurements of the initial sizes of the dots on the plate and the final sizes of the dots on the plate proved that the laser dots did wear faster than the contact exposed dots. The comparison between the measurements of the initial sizes of the printed dots and the final sizes of the printed dots did not demonstrate that either method of plate-making produced a more durable image
