Patent ID: 8408130

Claim:
A method for providing a relief image in a flexographic printing member that is useful to transfer ink from an image area of the relief image to a corresponding image area of a receiver element, the method comprising: removing elastomeric material from an elastomeric composition that has an elastomeric topmost surface, to provide a relief image comprising an image area in the elastomeric topmost surface, wherein: the removing of elastomeric material provides a plurality of dots consisting of (a) dots and (b) dots within a sub-area of the elastomeric topmost surface, each of the (a) dots and (b) dots having a minimum receiver element contact area, the difference between the elastomeric topmost surface and the top surface of each of the (a) dots is no more than 10 μm as the (a) dots are not purposely undercut and have a topmost surface that is essentially coincident with the elastomer topmost surface, and are uniformly distributed among the (b) dots, the (b) dots represent a fraction of less than 1 of the plurality of dots and each of the (b) dots within the sub-area has a topmost surface that is below the elastomeric topmost surface by at least 10 μm, and the (b) dots being undercut below the elastomeric topmost surface in a predetermined number and arrangement so that the (b) dots are still able to transfer ink to the receiver element, thereby providing a flexographic printing member with a relief image that has an image area.