Patent ID: 8199376
Filing Date: 2012-06-12
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image processing unit that performs image processing on image data as an image forming target; a plurality of light sources that is controlled to be driven to emit light beams; an image forming unit that forms a latent image of the image data on an image carrier by scanning the image carrier with a plurality of light beams corresponding to a plurality of lines in a main-scanning direction simultaneously; and a write control unit that, upon receiving an instruction of starting an image forming operation, sends a sub-scanning start reference signal indicating a reference of start of an image formation in a sub-scanning direction to the image processing unit, and that, upon receiving the image data from the image processing unit, starts control of driving the light sources for each of a plurality of colors, wherein upon receiving the sub-scanning start reference signal, the image processing unit transfers the image data on which the image processing is performed to the write control unit, and the write control unit changes a printing operation start position in the sub-scanning direction in units of line by controlling to output the sub-scanning start reference signal at timing of any one of a plurality of areas divided by number of lines that are scanned simultaneously in a scan cycle in a main-scanning direction.