Printing and platemaking is one of the pre-press processes. platemaking is the general term for the reproduction of an original manuscript into a plate. There are a series of plate making methods, such as arranging the lead type into the type plate, casting the type plate into the copy letterpress plate, obtaining the negative of the image by photographic or electronic color separation, and printing the letterpress plate, lithograph, gravure plate and so on.
Compared with other processes, the traditional plate making process has a relatively low degree of automation and more manual processes, mainly relying on the experience of the operator. With the popularization of CTP and digital printing platemaking technology, the traditional platemaking process will gradually withdraw from the market.

The so-called CTP platemaking machine is Computer to Plate, which is a prepress device directly made by a computer. CTP plate making is the use of digital workflow, directly converts text and images into numbers, and directly generates printing plates, eliminating the material of film, manual printing process, semi-automatic or automatic printing process. Compared with traditional plate making, the biggest feature of CTP plate making is that it eliminates the step of film.