Patent ID: 7684718

Claim:
An image recording apparatus for recording a pattern to a color image conveyance medium and reading said recorded pattern, the image recording apparatus comprising: a feeding unit that feeds said color image conveyance medium along a feeding path; a first image forming unit that records a pattern to said color image conveyance medium in a first color; a second image forming unit that records a pattern to said color image conveyance medium in a second color; a reflection intensity detection unit that reads a reflection intensity of said patterns; and an image formation control unit for calculating from said reflection intensity a color shift value of said second image forming unit with respect to said first image forming unit, wherein said first image forming unit records a first pattern of a first interval and said second image forming unit records a second pattern of a second interval overlapping said first pattern so that a first patch having said first pattern and said second pattern overlapped is formed, and wherein said first image forming unit records a third pattern of said second interval and said second image forming unit records a fourth pattern of said first interval overlapping said third pattern so that a second patch having said third pattern and said fourth pattern overlapped is formed.