Patent ID: 6871026

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image carrier which is capable of carrying an electrostatic latent image; a developer in which toner is housed and which transports said toner toward a surface of said image carrier; image forming means which applies a predetermined developing bias to said developer, to thereby move said toner to said image carrier, visualize said electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of said image carrier with said toner, and consequently forms a toner image; and memory means which stores toner state information which expresses a state of said toner housed within said developer, wherein said toner state information is updated in accordance with an operating state of said apparatus and stored; and a toner image is formed as a patch image when said toner state information satisfies a predetermined control start condition, an image forming condition which influences an image density is optimized based on a toner density of said patch image, and an image density is consequently controlled.