Patent ID: 7374280

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an ink ejection device which ejects droplets of a radiation-curable ink onto a recording medium; a conveyance device which causes the ink ejection device and the recording medium to move relatively to each other in a relative movement direction by conveying at least one of the ink ejection device and the recording medium; a radiation irradiation device which irradiates radiation to the droplets deposited on the recording medium by the ink ejection device; a dot formation conditions determination device which determines a dot size of dots and a pitch between adjacent dots to be formed by the ejected droplets, according to print data; and a droplet ejection timing control device which sets an ejection interval between the droplets according to information relating to the dot size and the dot pitch determined by the dot formation conditions determination device, and controls an ejection timing of a subsequent droplet ejected subsequently in an overlapping fashion, in such a manner that the subsequent droplet is ejected to form a dot overlapping with a dot formed by a droplet deposited previously on the recording medium, after a surface of the previously deposited droplet is preliminarily cured to a threshold cured film thickness by the radiation.