Patent ID: 7751765

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image bearing member to bear a toner image; a recording medium that accepts the toner image to be transferred from the image bearing member; and a transferring member that press-contacts the image bearing member while pressing the recording medium against the toner image residing on the image bearing member so as to transfer the toner image onto the recording medium; wherein, when the transferring member transfers the toner image residing on the image bearing member onto the recording medium in such a state that the toner image is extended from an edge of the recording medium, a positional relationship between the transferring member, the recording medium and the image bearing member is established so as to fulfill a specific relationship of: 0<A<B where A is defined as a length of an extended portion of the toner image residing on the image bearing member, the extended portion being relatively extended from the edge of the recording medium; and B is defined as a length of a distance from the edge of the recording medium to an edge of a contacting area at which the transferring member and the image bearing member press-connect each other outside the edge of the recording medium; and wherein a direction of the length A is substantially the same as that of the length B.