Patent ID: 7268797

Claim:
An image forming apparatus for irradiating an electrically charged photosensitive material with a laser beam and forming an electrostatic latent image to thereby form an image, comprising: first storage means for dividing one scanning interval of the laser beam on the photosensitive material into a plurality of blocks with respect to plural pixels, and for storing first correction data for each block, which corresponds to optical characteristics of an optical unit placed between a laser element and the photosensitive material, in association with each block; second storage means for storing second correction data for each block, corresponding to electrification characteristics of the photosensitive material; first calculation means for obtaining third correction data with respect to each pixel by performing a linear interpolation arithmetic, based on the first correction data for neighboring blocks; second calculation means for obtaining fourth correction data with respect to each pixel by performing a linear interpolation arithmetic, based on the second correction data for neighboring blocks; arithmetic means for obtaining correction data by combining the third correction data obtained by said first calculation means and the fourth correction data obtained by said second calculation means; and driving control means for correcting a drive signal of the laser element with respect to each pixel and driving the laser element based upon the correction data obtained by said arithmetic means.