A method for digital imaging of a printing form (10) through application of energy is described, in which a burn-off area (66) is detachably fixed by supporting points (68, 84), supporting points (68, 84) being left in place on the printing form (10) through non-imaging of image spots (112) and in which the burn-off from the burn-off area (66) is detached from the printing form (10) in a cleaning step. A supporting point (68, 84) at a reference point is left in place precisely if the number of image spots (110) to be imaged in a surrounding area (18) of the reference point (12) exceeds a limit value and a boundary area (20) in the surrounding area (18) around the reference point (12) contains only image spots (110) to be imaged. The method may be used in a system for digital imaging of printing forms (10) having an energy source (86), a cleaning unit (70), a control unit (96), and an image processing unit (98) with a computing unit (100), in particular with a raster image processor (RIP) (102) in a printing unit of a printing press.