The invention relates to a method for illuminating printing plates (5) in which the light from a light source (2) is imaged on a two-dimensional light modulator (4) having a plurality of rows of light-modulated cells (8), and said light is modulated thereby, whereupon the light modulator (4) is imaged on light-sensitive material (5) via an imaging beam path (11), wherein the light-sensitive material (5) is moved relative to the light modulator (4) substantially perpendicularly to the direction of the rows of light-modulated cells (8) at a relative speed and wherein the data pattern to be imaged on the light-sensitive material (5) is displayed beginning in the first row of the light modulator (4) in each row consecutively during a respective exposure time (T, T') and then moved to the subsequent row of the light modulator (4). In order to improve said method, the invention proposes that the image (10) of the data pattern be held substantially stationary relative to the light-sensitive material (5) during the exposure time (T, T').