A device for adjusting the plate or blanket cylinders in a rotary printing press automatically moves the cylinders to predetermined positions for clamping or unclamping the plate or blanket. A memory stores predetermined set values for cylinder position, which are addressed by a triggering unit in response to operation selections. An angle coder senses the actual value of the cylinder position which is compared to the set values obtained from the memory to generate a control signal for adjusting a cylinder drive motor. In a preferred embodiment, the memory also stores the direction for rotating the cylinders as well as a number of cylinder movement steps for plate and blanket clamping and unclamping sequences.