A short inking unit for a planographic printing unit that has a compact design and is operable for transferring an ink film to a form cylinder with high uniformity and stability. This short inking unit includes an applicator roll arrangement having a plurality of applicator rolls (5, 6; 5, 6, 15) which each interact with the form cylinder (1) and are offset with respect to one another in the direction of rotation of said form cylinder (1), and a plurality of engraved rolls (7, 8; 7, 8, 13; 17, 7, 8; 17, 7) which are offset with respect to one another in the direction of rotation of the form cylinder (1) and which each have a respective ink supply for applying ink to the engraved roll. The applicator rolls and engraved rolls form a roll train having rolls which roll on one another in pairs with each pair of rolls including one applicator roll (5, 6, 15) and one engraved roll (7, 8, 13, 17) interacting at a roll nip of the roll train. The rolls of said roll train each are smaller in diameter than the diameter of said form cylinder 1, and the roll train has at least one end formed by an engraved roll which interacts with only one applicator roll.