Patent ID: 6925272
Filing Date: 2005-08-02
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an electrostatic latent image carrier capable of carrying an electrostatic latent image for at least two pages; an electrostatic latent image-forming unit that forms the electrostatic latent image on the electrostatic latent image carrier according to image data of each color; a plurality of developing units that develop the electrostatic latent image on the electrostatic latent image carrier by a developer of each color to form a mono-color developer image according to each color; an intermediate transfer body onto which mono-color developer images of respective colors formed by the plurality of developing units are transferred successively so as to be superposed on one another to form a multi-color developer image; a transfer unit that transfers the multi-color developer image formed on the intermediate transfer body onto a recording medium; and a simultaneous printing unit configured to form an electrostatic latent image for two pages and a mono-color developer image for two pages continuously on the electrostatic latent image carrier, to transfer the mono-color developer image for two pages successively onto the intermediate transfer body to make the intermediate transfer body carry a multi-color developer image for two pages, and to transfer the multi-color developer image for two pages onto two sheets of recording media by the transfer unit to form two multi-color images including a first multi-color image and a second multi-color image; wherein the simultaneous printing unit includes a simultaneous printing image data generating unit configured to generate image data of each color for simultaneous printing so that a variety of image data of each color for forming the first multi-color image coincide with a variety of image data of each color for forming the second multi-color image, when a variety of colors required for forming the second multi-color image include some or none of a variety of colors required for forming the first multi-color image.