Patent ID: 8891990

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming device to form a toner image on a recording medium according to image data a fixing device disposed downstream from the image forming device in a recording medium conveyance direction to fix the toner image on the recording medium, the fixing device including, a fixing rotary body rotatable in a predetermined direction of rotation, a pressing rotary body separatably pressed against the fixing rotary body to form a nip therebetween through which the recording medium bearing the toner image passes, and a moving assembly operatively connected to the pressing rotary body to move the pressing rotary body bidirectionally to alternately press the pressing rotary body against the fixing rotary body and separate the pressing rotary body from the fixing rotary body; and a controller operatively connected to the moving assembly to control the moving assembly by setting a post-fixing pressing time period, the post-fixing pressing time period being a period of time which the moving assembly continues pressing the pressing rotary body against the fixing rotary body after the recording medium bearing the toner image is discharged from the nip, wherein the image data include monochrome or color image color tone and at least one of text, solid, linear, and dotted image patterns, the post-fixing pressing time period is selectable from among a plurality of options that includes a first post-fixing pressing time period and a second post-fixing pressing time period shorter than the first post-fixing pressing time period, and the controller is configured to select the second post-fixing pressing time period when the image data includes the monochrome image color tone and one of the text, solid, and linear image patterns.