In the manufacture of a color cathode ray tube equipped with an in-line electron gun for emitting a central electron beam and a pair of side electron beams, the inner surface of a face plate is exposed to make a stripe screen through a shadow mask using a light source and a correction lens. At an exposing stage corresponding to the central beam and at exposing stages corresponding to the pair of side beams a correction lens is commonly used. Relative azimuth of the correction lens between the exposing stage corresponding to the central beam and the exposing stages corresponding to the side beams is different by an angle of 90.degree..