Steady‐state planar ablative flow in a laser produced plasma is studied. The calculations relate all steady‐state fluid quantities to only three parameters, the material, absorbed irradiance, and laser wavelength. The fluid is divided into three regions; the subcritical expanding plasma, the steady‐state ablation front, and the accelerated slab. Boundary conditions at the interfaces of these regions are given. If the absorbed irradiance is nonuniform, the nonuniformity in ablation pressure is calculated. Results are compared with experiment and fluid simulation for both uniform and nonuniform illumination.