System for producing a halftone film or a printing plate

Abstract

A color original such as a color reversal film and the like which may be different size (for example, the Brownie, 4'.times.5', 35 mm) is fitted or stored in the original cassette mounted on the cassette base. The original is read to obtain a whole image data by a transmission type or a reflection type image sensor without catching any flare, and an auxiliary scanning is done sequentially on lines of the original, reading the whole surface thereof, so as to output directly the plates of C,M,Y and black (K). Because of the procedure described above the operation to produce the plates is easily done at a high speed by even an unskilled operator. The operation for scanning the original image comprises the steps of scanning (pre-scanning) the original image in rough, and then scanning (main scanning) it in detail. The original image is displayed in accordance with data of the pre-scanning and the data of the pre-scanning is stored in a memory. On the basis of the stored data, the condition parameters for the image processing are determined automatically (or manually) and the image output is carried out at a high speed and high efficiency by judging the relationship which is provided by the condition parameters, between the original and the photosensitive material so as to make remarkable improvements in producing the printing plates.