A resilient sheet gripper for a sheet-fed rotary printing press having a gripper shaft to which is secured a pivoting clamping member in resilient relationship with a pivotable gripper finger having a fulcrum and adjsutable biasing, is provided including a base member mounted loosely around the gripper shaft, a joint on the base member for pivotally securing the finger to the base member, a plurality of compression springs disposed on opposite sides of the gripper shaft with associated stops for adjustably pressing the gripper finger and the base member against the clamping member, and another stop which acts against the cylinder upon closure of the gripper finger thereby moving the fulcrum of the gripper finger from the gripper shaft to the joint so as to change the gripper finger lever transmission which then increases the retaining force.