Patent ID: 7184678

Claim:
An image forming apparatus that includes a structure in which an electrostatic latent image formed on a latent image carrier is developed into a visible image, and the visible image is transferred onto a transfer material being carried by a conveying member, the image forming apparatus comprising: a pre-transfer exposing unit that makes only a portion of the latent image carrier that corresponds to a leading edge of the transfer material expose before the visible image is transferred to the transfer material; and a transfer-bias applying unit configured to apply to the latent image carrier biases of different bias values for transferring the visible image onto the transfer material, wherein the transfer-bias applying unit starts applying the bias to the transfer material when a predetermined time is passed from a point of time at which the leading edge of the transfer material comes into a contact with the latent image carrier by controlling the pre-transfer exposing unit and a bias applying timing of the transfer-bias applying unit.