In an ink fountain device for a printing press of the type wherein a plurality of divided blade sections are adjustable toward and away from an ink fountain roller and a covering plate covering the divided blade sections is attracted to the divided blade sections by permanent magnets embedded in the divided blade sections, an inner end of the covering plate is spaced a predetermined distance away from the ink fountain roller and slanted downwardly and an angle between the slanted surface and an upper surface of the covering plate is made to be smaller than that between the upper surface and a tangent passing through a point on a periphery of the ink fountain roller confronting an inner end of the divided blade section. According to this construction bending up of the covering plate can be prevented so that leakage of the ink into a gap between the divided blade sections and the covering plate can be prevented.