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The paper faces the quality control problem for printed flasks, bottles and cans, used as containers for drugs and beverages. The control is mainly aimed at identifying ink spots and faded prints produced by a serigraphic process, but the approach is generically applicable to any kind of printing and printed cylindrical surface. Differently from the existing systems, based on the acquisition of good printed samples, the automatic control is based on the original digital image feeded to the printing system. Therefore, the control takes place directly between the ideal model and the result of a complex printing process including a number of distortion and noise sources. Problems related to image acquisition, reconstruction and alignment are investigated; a novel technique for image-model verification, based on adaptive local deformation, is also proposed and tested over a significant set of samples. A complete prototype system designed for such quality control is finally described and its operating capability on the field is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]