Abstract: A plurality of adjustment screws are supported on an adjusting device mounted in a recess in the outer periphery of a cylinder of a sheet-fed rotary printing press, and threadedly extend through an adjustment bar extending axially of the cylinder. A gripper pad bar on which gripper pads are mounted is disposed radially outwardly of the adjustment bar in contact therewith. The gripper pad bar and the adjustment bar are held against each other through their contact surfaces which are complementarily slanted. Rotatable movement of the adjusting screws causes the adjustment bar to displace the gripper pad bar radially outwardly or inwardly for stepless adjustment of the height of the gripper pads in conformity with the thickness of a sheet of paper without having to remove the gripper pad bar and other parts.