Patent ID: 7273264

Claim:
An image forming apparatus which forms an image on a recording medium by using coloring materials of a plurality of colors including at least cyan, magenta and yellow, the apparatus comprising: a cyan recording head which has a plurality of cyan recording elements for forming cyan recording pixels on the recording medium; a magenta recording head which has a plurality of magenta recording elements for forming magenta recording pixels on the recording medium; a yellow recording head which has a plurality of yellow recording elements for forming yellow recording pixels on the recording medium, a density of the plurality of yellow recording elements arranged in the yellow recording head being lower than each of a density of the plurality of cyan recording elements arranged in the cyan recording head and a density of the plurality of magenta recording elements arranged in the magenta recording head; and a recording control device which controls a recording operation in such a manner that a recording density of the yellow recording pixels formed on the recording medium with the yellow recording head is lower than each of a recording density of the cyan recording pixels formed on the recording medium with the cyan recording head and a recording density of the magenta recording pixels formed on the recording medium with the magenta recording head, wherein the yellow recording head includes a liquid discharging head which has nozzles for discharging at least one of a liquid for fixing an ink used as the coloring materials onto the recording medium, a coating liquid for protecting pigment in the coloring materials, and a liquid for forming a protective film for protecting the coloring materials from rubbing or abrasion, and a density of the nozzles of the liquid discharging head is substantially less than the density of the plurality of yellow recording elements.