Patent ID: 9387690
Filing Date: 2016-07-12
CPC Classification: B41J,G03G

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus that can perform image forming processing by forming a latent image on a charged photosensitive member and causing toner particles to adhere to the latent image, the image forming apparatus comprising: a light irradiation unit configured to emit light based on a light-emission signal corresponding to an image to be formed and form a latent image by irradiating and scanning the charged photosensitive member with light; and a signal generation unit configured to store information relating to a plurality of light-emission patterns having been set beforehand in accordance with a plurality of density levels of toner particles to be supplied to the photosensitive member, and configured to generate a plurality of light-emission signals based on the information relating to the plurality of light-emission patterns, wherein the signal generation unit is configured to generate the plurality of light-emission signals corresponding to a plurality of pixels that constitutes the image based on information relating to the light-emission patterns, wherein the signal generation unit is configured to store information relating to a toner non-adherent area oriented light-emission pattern having been set beforehand according to a level that does not cause toner particles to adhere to the photosensitive member, and generate a toner non-adherent area oriented light-emission signal based on information relating to the toner non-adherent area oriented light-emission pattern, wherein the toner non-adherent area oriented light-emission signal is at least one of the plurality of light-emission signals generated based on information relating to the plurality of light-emission patterns, and wherein while the light irradiation unit scans based on the toner non-adherent area oriented light-emission signal, when the light irradiation unit scans a portion corresponding to two pixels adjacently disposed in a scanning direction, at least one of (a) light-emission start timing of the light irradiation unit and (b) light-emission termination timing of the light irradiation unit is differentiated between the two pixels.