The laser induced thermal transfer enables the first commercial available reimageable offset process in MAN Roland's DICOweb. Main steps of the cycle are: imaging, fixing, conditioning and de-imaging after the print run.Two surface conditions of this closed loop are of particular importance: ready to image and ready to print. To obtain good adhesion of the image the surface has to be cleaned thoroughly. That means neither any remains of the previous image nor any other contamination should be present on the substrate. In this context we investigated the influence of the de-imaging step on the surface energy and thus the adhesion. Good lithographic properties in wet offset may be characterised by a sufficient contrast of image and background concerning ink and water reception. The DICO process comprises a special conditioning step to ensure that contrast.An important parameter of a printing master is its run length stability. We examined the imaged print forms with a white light interferometer and developed a consistent model describing the connection of transfer parameters and achieved run length. Laser induced thermal transfer needs a well defined nip between donor ribbon and substrate. A configuration was developed in which appearing problems like dust and gas bubbling are solved in the DICO cycle.