Patent ID: 7286785

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit configured to form a toner image on an image carrier; a transferring unit configured to transfer the toner image onto a transfer body by a transfer electric field; an image carrier cleaning unit configured to clean excess toner from the image carrier; a transfer body cleaning unit configured to clean excess toner from the transfer body; and an electric-field controller configured to vary the transfer electric field to distribute toner onto at least one of the image carrier and the transfer body between a plurality of levels, including, a first level in which an entirety of the toner remains on the image carrier, a second level in which the entirety of the toner is distributed to the transfer body, and a third level in which less than the entirety of the toner remains on the image carrier and a remainder of the toner is distributed to the transfer body, wherein said electric field controller, at a time other than a time of image formation, is configured to adhere a larger amount of toner to at least one of the image carrier and the transfer body as compared to at the time of image formation, and at least one of the image carrier cleaning unit and the transfer body cleaning unit is configured to perform an adhering substance removal operation on at least one of the image carrier and the transfer body.