Method for increasing throughput and reducing blurriness due to movement

A method for illuminating printing plates in which the light from a light source is imaged on a two-dimensional light modulator having a plurality of rows of light-modulated cells, and the light is modulated thereby, whereupon the light modulator is imaged on light-sensitive material via an imaging beam path, wherein the light-sensitive material is moved relative to the light modulator substantially perpendicularly to the direction of the rows of light-modulated cells at a relative speed and wherein the data pattern to be imaged on the light-sensitive material is displayed beginning in the first row of the light modulator in each row consecutively during an exposure time (T, T') and then moved to the subsequent row of the light modulator. In order to improve the method, the image of the data pattern is held substantially stationary relative to the light-sensitive material during the exposure time (T, T').