Patent ID: 7680423

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a photoreceptor drum on which, in a driven state, an electrostatic latent image of an image for image formation is optically formed; developing means which, in a driven state, toner-develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor drum; transfer means for, in a driven state, transferring to an image recording medium the developed image obtained by toner development by the developing means; and control means which, when instruction information for instructing formation of the developed image on a plurality of sheets of the image recording medium is inputted, controls driving of the photoreceptor drum, the developing means and the transfer means such that formation of the developed image on the plurality of sheets of the image recording medium according to the instruction information is continuously performed, and controls driving of the photoreceptor drum, the developing means and the transfer means such that, in a course of the continuous image formation, driving of the photoreceptor drum, the developing means and the transfer means are halted at least once; and a fuser, which fixes the developed image transferred to the image recording medium on the image recording medium by heat; and wherein the control means controls the photoreceptor drum, the developing means and the transfer means, based on a size of the image recording medium, such that, every time a number of continuously image-formed sheets reaches a prescribed number of sheets of the image recording medium, the photoreceptor drum, the developing means and the transfer means are halted for a prescribed period of time, and the prescribed number of sheets and the prescribed period of time are determined as those with which image formation on the image recording medium can be continuously performed by the prescribed number of sheets without the fuser exceeding a prescribed temperature, wherein the size of the image recording medium is a measure of a printable area of the image recording medium.