10 until a portion of the lever arm 15a on the stop 15 contacts the stop member 18 which contact coincides with the contact between the roller and the printing plates 2 on the plate cylinder 1 by exerting a certain excess force the working cylinder forces the roller 6 against the printing plate 2 so that a contact strip having a width b is established between the roller and the plate the ratio of the lever arms 15a 15b can be selected so that the width of the contact strip b is achieved when the stop 15 and the stop member 18 are in contact the end of the lever arm 15b spaced from the pin 16 is connected by a pin 19 to a link member 17 and the other end of the link member is secured by an eccentric bolt 20 to the bearing 8 the distance between the bearing 8 and the pin 19 can be varied by selectively rotating the eccentric bolt 20 and such variation effects a change in the width of the contact strip b however changing the dimension between the bearing 8 and the pin 19 does not influence the width of the contact strip a which depends only on the load applied by the weight of the roller 6 and the force of the spring 12 if the diameter of the roller 6 changes because of heat or if the.