Patent ID: 8434848

Claim:
An image forming device which forms an image on a recording sheet by bidirectional recording, comprising: a sheet transporting device that transports a recording sheet in a sheet transporting direction; a recording head including multiple head units of different colors, each head unit having nozzles arranged to discharge a recording liquid of one of the colors; a head moving device that moves the recording head along a forward path and a backward path parallel to a direction perpendicular to the sheet transporting direction to form an image on the recording sheet using some of the nozzles of each head unit of the recording head; and a control part that controls the image forming device, the control part comprising: a distance changing part configured to change a sheet transporting distance for transporting the recording sheet after a forward movement of the recording head to a first transport distance and configured to change a sheet transporting distance for transporting the recording sheet after a backward movement of the recording head to a second transport distance, said second transport distance being different from the first transport distance; and a nozzle changing part configured to determine inactive nozzles which do not discharge the recording liquid, among the nozzles of the recording head alternately for one of the forward movement and the backward movement of the recording head, where the distance changing part is configured so that one of the first transport distance and the second transport distance is set to a predetermined minimum sheet transport distance.