is high gravure roll 13 should preferably be rotated in the counterclockwise direction in fig3 so that the surface of gravure roll 13 contacting web 11 moves opposite to the direction of movement of web 11 when coating material viscosity is low gravure roll 13 should be rotated clockwise in fig3 so that the surface of gravure roll 13 contacting web 11 moves in the same direction as web 11 using these techniques coating applied to the undersurface of web 11 is satisfactorily smooth by varying rotational speed of gravure roll 13 to change the relative velocity between web 11 and gravure roll 13 smoothness of coating applied to the undersurface of web 11 may be assured and coating thickness can be adjusted and even controlled to a predetermined value using a plurality of gravure coating devices of the type shown in fig3 and 4 a web 11 can be transported through the gravure coating devices and coating materials of different colors can be supplied to coat respective portions of the web with coating materials of different colors an example blue red and yellow coatings may be fed to three serially disposed gravure coating devices of the type illustrated in fig3 and 4 the respective gravure coating devices are maintained below and out of contact with web 11 until a selected portion of undersurface of web 11 which must be coated with a specific color approaches the gravure coating devices when the selected portion of the web reaches the gravure.