Patent ID: 8340542
Filing Date: 2012-12-25
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: multiple colored toner image forming units to form multiple colored toner images on a rotatable body; a transfer device to collectively transfer the multiple colored toner images onto a recording medium from the rotatable body; a fixing device to fix the multiple colored toner images onto the recording medium; a light-colored toner image forming unit provided upstream from the multiple colored toner image forming units in a direction of rotation of the rotatable body to form a light-colored toner image having a color lighter than colors of the multiple colored toner images as a bottommost layer of a resultant full-color toner image formed on the rotatable body, wherein the multiple colored toner images respectively formed by the multiple colored toner image forming units are sequentially superimposed on the light-colored toner image formed by the light-colored toner image forming unit as the bottommost layer of the resultant full-color toner image formed on the rotatable body, a first condition is defined by forming the light-colored toner image such that the light-colored toner image is not transferred onto the recording medium by the transfer device, a second condition is defined by forming the light-colored toner image such that the light-colored toner image is partially transferred onto the recording medium by the transfer device, and one of the first and second conditions is selected based on whether glossiness is required in an image to be formed.