Early history of the printing press
Print history archive
Man
Roland
The first Roland sheetfed offset press
1911
A new name entered the offset printing market.
In 1911, Faber and Schleicher built the first Roland sheetfed offset press in Offenbach, Germany. The press gave its name to a brand that became closely associated with offset printing and marked an early step in the long transition from traditional lithographic presses toward industrial offset production. [1]
The Roland press entered a field where sheetfed offset could combine lithographic image quality with the speed and repeatability of engineered press machinery.
The sheetfed offset production path
- 01
Stone
The image is prepared on the printing plate, carrying the information to be reproduced.
- 02
Blanket cylinder
The blanket receives the inked image and becomes the intermediary transfer surface.
- 03
Sheetfed paper
Paper feeds through the press and receives the final image from the blanket.
The wider history
From fast lithographic presses to a global offset name.
Man Roland's 1911 milestone grew from decades of press engineering in Offenbach. The first Roland sheetfed offset press joined the precision of lithographic reproduction with a machine designed for modern commercial production. Its influence extended beyond one press: the ROLAND name became a durable symbol of offset technology.
1871
Faber and Schleicher is founded
Louis Faber and Adolf Schleicher established Faber and Schleicher, the Offenbach press manufacturer that would later introduce the Roland name. [1]
1875
Albatros increases lithographic speed
The Albatros press is launched with a reported output of up to 700 sheets per hour. It demonstrated the company's early focus on bringing speed to lithographic production. [1]
1911
The first Roland sheetfed offset press is built
Faber and Schleicher builds the first Roland sheetfed offset press. It enters the market in Offenbach and, according to the city history, wins a gold medal at the Turin trade fair. [2]
1922
Klein-Roland expands output
The single-colour Klein-Roland 00 is introduced, with a listed output of up to 5,000 sheets per hour. [1]
1951
Four-colour sheetfed printing advances
The four-colour sheetfed offset press “The Ultra” appears at the drupa trade show, continuing the ROLAND line's evolution in colour printing. [1]
The story behind the press
Man Roland began with a question of precision: how could a sheetfed press make offset printing a dependable industrial process?
Why 1911 mattered
By 1911, lithography had already proved that it could reproduce images with detail and tonal range. The next challenge was to turn that capability into a repeatable, high-output industrial method. Faber and Schleicher had spent decades building lithographic press technology in Offenbach, beginning with the company’s founding in 1871 and the introduction of the Albatros high-speed lithographic press in 1875. The first Roland did not appear from nowhere; it was the result of a long engineering path through faster, more capable press designs. [1]
The 1911 Roland press brought the company into the new field of sheetfed offset. In offset printing, the inked image travels from the plate to a blanket cylinder and only then to the sheet. That indirect route is central because the blanket can transfer an even impression to the paper while protecting the plate from direct contact. It created a robust mechanical relationship between image quality, paper handling, and repeatable production.
The ROLAND name becomes a sign of offset engineering
The first press to carry the Roland name left the Offenbach factory in 1911. City records note that it was awarded a gold medal at the Turin trade fair, while Manroland's own company history identifies it as the first Roland sheetfed offset press. The name later became larger than a single model: it became the identity of a press family and eventually a defining part of the company brand. [1] [2]
This history helps explain why the 1911 machine matters. It represents a shift from lithographic presses that were still close to earlier stone-printing technology toward a sheetfed offset system built for commercial work. It was not the end of the letterpress era, but it was a visible early signal that offset technology could take a larger role in modern printing.
Why sheetfed offset was a strategic direction
Sheetfed offset allowed printers to handle individual sheets with control while using the blanket cylinder to transfer a consistent image. For commercial work, this made it possible to pursue quality, registration, and production efficiency in the same machine. It also gave press makers a platform to improve speeds, colour capability, and operator controls over time. The Roland line would continue to evolve around those goals for more than a century.
The sheetfed offset route
Three stages that made offset practical
The 1911 Roland press belongs to a production path in which the image is prepared on a plate, transferred to a blanket, and delivered to paper. Each stage has a distinct job: image preparation, controlled transfer, and final impression on the sheet.
Plate
The plate carries the image areas that accept ink and the non-image areas that hold moisture and repel it.
Blanket cylinder
The blanket receives the inked image from the plate and becomes the flexible intermediary surface for the final transfer.
Sheet and impression
The press feeds the sheet into contact with the blanket so that the finished image transfers cleanly to the paper.
Industrial adoption and legacy
From an Offenbach press to a worldwide offset legacy.
Building the Roland family
The first Roland was followed by increasingly capable machines. Manroland records the 1922 Klein-Roland 00 at up to 5,000 sheets per hour, a major step up from the earlier Albatros. In 1951, the four-colour sheetfed offset press called The Ultra appeared at drupa. These milestones show how the basic 1911 concept became a continuing program of higher speed, colour capability, and production control. [1]
By 1972, the ROLAND 800 brought an integrated colour-control system and a listed output of up to 10,000 sheets per hour. Later presses added more extensive automation and digitalised control. Each generation addressed the same practical questions that shaped the 1911 press: how to keep colour stable, how to move sheets reliably, how to shorten make-ready time, and how to reproduce images at speed. [1]
Offset and the changing newspaper pressroom
The growth of offset printing did not replace letterpress overnight. For decades, letterpress remained important in newspapers and commercial work. But offset's image quality, plate-making improvements, and increasingly capable press technology made it a more attractive option as the twentieth century progressed. A 2004 Man Roland industry history notes that offset overtook letterpress in overall sales by 1982, after decades of expanding adoption. [3]
For newspaper printers, the move away from older letterpress systems was part of this wider industrial change. Offset presses could integrate high-volume paper handling with photographic reproduction and colour workflows, making them increasingly suited to modern news and commercial production. Man Roland became especially associated with the engineering side of that transition, developing sheetfed systems as well as later web-offset technologies for publishing and newspaper printing.
Why the name still matters
The City of Offenbach describes the first Roland as a milestone in the economic history of the city, while Manroland traces its modern press business back to the 1911 machine. The legacy is not merely a brand story. It is a record of how a press manufacturer helped transform offset from an emerging technique into a durable family of commercial printing technologies. [1] [2]
Why Man Roland matters
Man Roland's 1911 press gave a name and a durable manufacturing identity to early sheetfed offset printing. It connected traditional lithographic engineering to a new offset production path, then evolved through faster presses, colour systems, and more sophisticated control technology. In the larger history of printing, it stands as an early industrial milestone on the road from letterpress dominance to widespread offset production. [1] [3]
References
- Manroland Sheetfed, “History” — fed offset press and later ROLAND production milestones.
- City of Offenbach, “1911: First Roland printing press leaves the factory” — tradition.
- WhatTheyThink, “MAN Roland: 100 Years of Offset Printing” — ertaking of letterpress.