A strip for the production of a substrate for lithographic printing plates consisting of aluminum or an aluminum alloy and has at least to some extent a microcrystalline surface layer as a result of hot and/or cold roll passes. When analyzed in a two-dimensional microprobe analysis according to the mapping method of a surface region of the microcrystalline surface of the strip, the surface portion having an intensity ratio I/Ibulk(avg) of greater than 3 in the spectral range of the Kα1 line of the X-ray emission spectrum of oxygen of the measured microcrystalline surface layer is less than 10%, preferably less than 7%, wherein, during the two-dimensional microprobe analysis, an excitation voltage of 15kV, a beam current of 50 nA and a beam cross section of 1 μm is used with a step size of 16.75 μm for the electron beam.