Objective The guide roller is an important part to ensure the stable transmission of the printing web in gravure printing. Bending deformation occurs in the roller due to the web tension and the gravity of the roller. Flexural deflection analysis and structure optimal design were developed in order to improve the follow-up property of the guide roller. Methods According to the guide roller’ s own structure characteristics, the guide roller was simplified to a continuous beam model based on Ansys software. A spring element was used to simulate the effect of the bearings. Rollers with different wall thickness were analyzed. The relationship between printing precision and the roller deformation was analyzed. Results A multi-body combination finite element model was established for flexural deflection analysis. When the radius of the guide roller was ?120 mm, the length of roller body was 1100 mm, the length of the shaft head was 110 mm, the wrap angle between the web and the guide roller was 90 degrees, the wall thickness of the guide roller was 4.5 mm in engineering practical use. Conclusion The maximum deformation occurred in the middle of the guide roller in axial direction. With the increase of wall thickness, the deformation value increased. The effect of wall thickness on the bending deformation of the guide roller was obvious. According to the results of this paper, the follow-up property of the guide roller was improved after optimization of the wall thickness. So the web transfer quality could also be improved.