Aqueous solutions are provided for treating imagebearing lithographic plates. These solutions include as an active polmyer component:(a) a polyacrylamide-based polymer wherein from about 3 to about 70 percent of the carbonyl sites are carboxyl groups, and the balance of said sites are amide moieties;(b) a physical blend comprised of from about 97 to about 30 weight percent polyacrylamide and from about 3 to about 70 weight percent polyacrylic acid or an alkali metal or ammonium salt thereof;(c) a physical blend comprised of polyacrylamide, or polyacrylic acid or an alkali metal or ammonium salt thereof, and at least one polyacrylamide-based polymer as described in (a), said polymers being employed in proportions such that of the total carbonyl sites present in the blend, from about 3 to about 70 weight percent are carboxyl groups and the balance are amide moieties;(d) a mixture of any two or more of the foregoing; or(e) a mixture of any one or more of the foregoing with up to about 30 percent by weight hydroxypropyl methylcellulose.The weight average molecular weight (Mw) of each of the polyacrylamide-based polymer, the polyacrylamide, and the polyacrylic acid or salt thereof is from about 5,000 to about 1,000,000.By employing various concentrations of the above described active component in an aqueous solution, and, optionally, by employing in addition other components, solutions and/or emulsions are provided for the developing, gumming, gum etching, cleaning, storage, and the like, of lithographic plates. The method consists in applying the compositions to an image-bearing plate. As a new article, there is produced a lithographic plate bearing an image and having a coating containing the recited active polymer component.