A method for separating printed products, that are printed together onto a sheet of printed products, is disclosed. The printed products are printed onto a sheet in a printing press and are separated in a cutting system by a cutting device. Each of these printed products has an identification feature that identifies its respective position on the sheet. The sheet becomes deformed as it passes through the printing press. The separated printed products, which are likewise deformed, as a result of the deformation of the sheet, are inspected, in a quality control device which is located downstream of the cutting system, for compliance with the tolerance, at least with regard to the respective length or width of the printed products. For each printed product that has been identified, in terms of its position, the quality control device detects information relating to an exceeding of the tolerance, at least for the length or width of the printed product, and transmits that information, assigning that information to the position identified on the sheet, to a control unit of the cutting system. Based on the information transmitted by the quality control device, for printed products that are arranged in the same position on the sheet, and which will subsequently be separated in the cutting system, the control unit of the cutting system adjusts the relevant sheet and the cutting device in their respective positions, relative to one another, in such a way that each of the printed products to be separated complies with the respective tolerance. Compliance with the tolerance is achieved in that the position of the sheet and of the cutting device to be adjusted relative to one another is calculated in the control unit using a mathematical optimization method. The sheet is placed on a cutting table in the cutting system. The control unit of the cutting system adjusts the position of the sheet relative to the cutting device, according to the calculated position.