Patent ID: 8305627

Claim:
An image forming apparatus which carries out misregistration correction for image formed positions of a plurality of colors with the use of misregistration correction patterns, said image forming apparatus comprising: a pattern forming part configured to form a pattern image of either misregistration correction patterns including a plurality of position detecting marks or misregistration correction performing determination patterns having a plurality of position detecting marks, the number of which marks is smaller than that of the misregistration correction patterns; a misregistration amount calculating part configured to calculate a misregistration amount based on an image formed position detected with the use of the pattern image formed by the pattern forming part; a correction performing determination part configured to determine whether misregistration correction is to be carried out, based on the misregistration amount calculated by the misregistration amount calculating part; and a correcting part configured to carry out misregistration correction based on a determination result of the correction performing determination part, wherein: said correction performing determination part determines whether misregistration correction is to be carried out based on the misregistration amount calculated by the misregistration amount calculation part with the use of image formed positions of the misregistration correction performing determination patterns formed by the pattern forming part, and when the correction performing determination part has determined to carry out misregistration correction, the correcting part carries out misregistration correction based on the misregistration amount calculated by the misregistration amount collecting part with the use of image formed positions of the misregistration correcting patterns formed by the pattern forming part.