PURPOSE: To enable highly uniform ink coating to be conducted by a method wherein an ink support is prevented from developing wrinkles therein in the metering region of the coating film thickness of ink.

CONSTITUTION: Hot meltable ink 1 stored in an ink tank 2 is heated with a heater 3 and held under molten state. An ink support 7 is fed with ink by an ink feed roller 4 and then urged by an ink metering rod 5 so as to meter the amount of ink received. Just after the separation from the ink metering rod, the ink support 7 is supported by a heat roller 6, which is heated up to the same temperature as that of the ink metering rod 5, resulting in keeping the temperature of the ink support in ink metering region at constant and preventing the development of wrinkles due to the thermal deformation of the ink support from occurring. The flowing of the ink on the ink support in the ink metering region is uniformized, resulting in realizing ink coating under high uniformity of film thickness.