PURPOSE: To prevent uneven ink transfer from occurring and enable a pattern printing by a method wherein an printing unit is provided between a first and a second guide rolls, and a coater is provided between the second guide roll and the printing unit.

CONSTITUTION: In solid printing, an impression cylinder 18 is raised to the position shown by the solid line from a plate cylinder, guide rolls 22, 24 are lowered to the position shown by the solid line. A web 5 comes to a plate cylinder 12 through a guide roller 22, on which ink 20 is applied plenty. The rotation of the plate cylinder 12 is controlled so that the running speed of the web 5 may be brought in a relative relation with the peripheral speed of the plate cylinder 12 thereby to have almost the same coating amount of ink. An excessive amount of ink is scraped off with a coater 30, and is returned to an ink reservoir 20 between the plate cylinder 12 and a roll 14 through a reversing means 34. In pattern printing, the guide rolls 22, 24 are raised to the point shown by the dotted line, the impression cylinder 18 is lowered to the position shown by the dotted line, thereby to attain a proper printing pressure. Since the coater 30 does not come into contact with the web 5, the printing face is prevented from getting solid.