a method and apparatus are provided for photoelectrochemical reproduction of an image on a plate or roller . for a printing press , the apparatus includes a reusable image roller coated with a oxide semiconductor . a plating solution is applied to the image roller as a thin film . the desired image is written onto the oxide semiconductor by a laser that generates a photoelectrochemical reaction between the semiconductor and the plating solution . in a preferred embodiment , the image roller is coated with hydrophilic p - type nio . the image is written onto the roller as dots of oleophilic metallic copper , which are formed on the nio coating by laser - generated cathodic photoelectrodeposition . subsequent erasure of the metallic copper image can be accomplished by chemical or electrochemical dissolution of the deposited copper . the method functions to create , erase , and recreate high - resolution images directly on a printing press roller without the necessity of precise matrix registration .