Roller settings are also a very important adjustment on all printing presses and duplicators. Duplicator settings may be less critical due to the fact that ink rollers are usually mostly spring loaded or gravity held rollers. High quality is usually not expected from duplicators. Printing presses on the other hand are expected to print anything that an advertising artist could possibly imagine. Lets face it, these artists sometimes create designs that are eye catching and beautiful in concept, but quite often very difficult or impossible to print easily or economically.

Packing and cylinder pressure seem to be the number one culprit in printing related problems. It is absolutely necessary for the press operator to check and maintain proper printing pressure between plate, blanket, and impression cylinders. Press manufacturers should be able to supply this valuable information. Most of the time the packing information is located on a plate on the press or in the operating manual. How much pressure is too much? Most operators feel that is .004" squeeze is good, then .008" must be better, and if that doesn't work then an extra .002" - .004" will certainly help. This will without a doubt effect quality and production. Most presses should operate with .004" - .006" squeeze between cylinders. Any more than this can cause problems like dot gain, emulsification, bearing shock marks (streaks), poor register and fit to name a few. It would take several paragraphs to explain how each one of these problems occur due to excessive pressure, but to keep it simple, resetting the pressures to manufacturers specs might eliminate problems that you never knew you had.