Patent ID: 7292260

Claim:
An image forming apparatus that exposes and records an image on a photosensitive material by controlling a light emission amount of each light emission element using an image input signal, comprising: a plurality of light emission elements that each emit light in accordance with a supplied light emission control signal; and a control signal generation unit that generates the light emission control signal from the image input signal, wherein said control signal generation unit includes: a first signal generation section that generates a first light amount control signal that controls the light emission amount of each light emission element such that an image is formed on the photosensitive material at a determined density; a second signal generation section that generates an ON/OFF control signal and a second light amount control signal as a pair of signals, the ON/OFF control signal controlling ON/OFF of exposure by said light emission element and the second light amount control signal controlling the light emission amount of said light emission element at the time of the exposure, such that the photosensitive material, in which the recording should be performed, is exposed by the ON/OFF of the exposure; a computation section that determines the light emission amount of light that said light emission element should emit from the image input signal using a light amount-density characteristic of the photosensitive material, thereby determining a light emission amount control level of the first light amount control signal; and a signal switching section that generates the light emission control signal by performing signal switching between the first light amount control signal and the pair of the ON/OFF control signal and the second light amount control signal in accordance with a magnitude of a difference between an image forming density obtained on the photosensitive material at the light emission amount control level of the first light amount control signal and an image forming density obtained at a control level adjacent to the determined control level.