Patent ID: 7952774

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a first image carrying member corresponding to each of a plurality of colors, the first image carrying member having a photosensitive surface configured to carry a latent image; a scanning unit corresponding to each of the colors, the scanning unit configured to scan with light a photosensitive surface of a corresponding one of the first image carrying members in a main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction thereby forming a color-component correction latent image used for correcting image forming conditions, wherein the scanning unit forms in the main scanning direction at least one pattern of the color-component correction latent image corresponding to each of the image forming conditions; a developing unit corresponding to each of the colors, the developing unit configured to develop a color-component correction latent image on a photosensitive surface of a corresponding one of the first image carrying members thereby obtaining a color-component correction visual image in a corresponding color; a second image carrying member configured to carry the color-component correction visual images; a transferring unit that transfers each of the color-component correction visual images from the first image carrying member to the second image carrying member while the second image carrying member is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction thereby forming the pattern by aligning the color-component correction visual images in the sub-scanning direction; a pattern detecting unit configured to detect the color-component correction pattern visual images in the pattern on the second image carrying unit; and a correcting unit that corrects the image forming conditions for each of the colors based on a detection result obtaining by the pattern detecting unit.