Workers put finishing touches on the first section of the new press Monday for a Tuesday start up.

Ray Nixon works on rollers Monday near the top of the four-story press.

Your Times Free Press may once again look slightly different, the result of our ongoing installation of a new printing press.

We're in the process of replacing our outmoded flexography printing press with an offset press that includes three replacement towers purchased from the Boston Globe. So far, we've been printing on half of the old press while we build the new one. This week, we start printing on the new one. In coming months, we'll finish dismantling the old one and complete construction of the new one.

Meanwhile, you'll start seeing some of the temporary changes: On Sundays, we'll have two A sections. On Mondays, we'll have two Sports sections, the Metro section will have fewer pages than usual and the weather page will move to the back of the Sports section.

In a few weeks, some of our pages that have been black and white for the past few months will revert to color. Pages in some sections, like Life, Perspective and Sunday Business, will continue to be slightly smaller than the rest of the paper until the press project is completely finished.

If you notice any problems with the quality of the print, it's because our pressmen are getting used to a new type of press. We're confident that they'll master it quickly.

This process will take several more months, and we ask for your continued patience. The good news is that the new press, a multimillion-dollar investment, will allow the Times Free Press to offer more color pages and better print quality.

As we've said all along, our dedication to coverage of the news that matters to our readers will not change.