A method for controlling an amount of dampening solution in a printing unit of a printing press using a computer and a measuring device, includes setting an amount of dampening solution in the printing unit based on data of a current print job, reducing the amount of dampening solution towards a smearing threshold with the computer, recording color measurement values with the measuring device in at least one full tone area with low area coverage and in at least one halftone area with high area coverage on a printing material of the current print job, and stopping the reduction of the amount of dampening solution with the computer when a dot gain of the halftone in areas with high area coverage increases significantly and a density of the full tone in areas with low area coverage increases significantly.