Patent ID: 6118557
Filing Date: 2000-09-12
Classification: G03G,H04N

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus comprising:an image carrier;an exposing unit for forming latent images on said image carrier;a toner image forming means for forming toner images corresponding to said latent images on said image carrier;a multitone test pattern produced from at least one dither pattern and formed on said image carrier by said toner image forming means;a sensor means, including a light emitting device and a reading device, for optically reading said multitone test pattern;a density detecting means for detecting a toner density of said multitone test pattern in response to an output of said sensor means, said density detecting means including a signal detecting means for detecting operation of said exposing unit, and a detection control means for controlling a read timing of said sensor means based on said detected operation of said exposing unit such that said density detecting means only processes sensor means output data which is representative of said multitone test pattern;an environment measuring device configured to detect a change in an environmental condition in said image forming apparatus; anda process control device configured to perform a density detection sequence in accordance with a predetermined change in an environmental condition detected by the environment measuring device.