Patent ID: 7346303

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image carriers that carry visual images on outer circumferential surfaces thereof, the plurality of image carriers being rotatably supported by rotating shafts; a driving device that rotates the image carriers in circumferential directions; a plurality of visual image forming devices that form visual images on the outer circumferential surfaces of the image carriers; and a conveyer device that moves a medium onto which the visual images are transferred while maintaining abutment of the image carriers with the medium, and superimposingly transfers the visual images formed on the outer circumferential surfaces of the image carriers onto the medium, at abutting positions of the image carriers with the medium, wherein each of the plurality of image carriers has a rotation axis center and a physical center, as well as an eccentric direction vector having a direction running from the rotation axis center to the physical center, wherein the plurality of image carriers are attached to the rotating shafts such that a sum of the eccentric direction vectors of the plurality of image carriers is equal to 0, and wherein a distance between the rotation axis centers is three or five times a value obtained by dividing a circumferential length of the outer circumferential surface of each of the image carriers by the number of the carriers.