Patent ID: 7477853

Claim:
A toner cartridge attachable to a main body of an image forming apparatus or detachable from the main body, comprising: a toner container that is inserted into a housing unit of the image forming apparatus from a first direction and can be mounted; and a code pattern that is provided on an outer peripheral surface of the toner container and can be optically read, wherein the code pattern includes a first pattern string which is provided along the first direction and in which a first and a second patterns respectively indicating different binary levels are alternately arranged at a specified period, and a second pattern string which is provided to be shifted from the first pattern string in the first direction by almost a half period and in which the plural first patterns and the plural second patterns are combined and are arranged, wherein the code pattern is printed on a seal affixed to an outer peripheral surface of the toner container to be capable of being read by a photosensor, in the first pattern string, a first pattern and a second pattern represented by two colors different in lightness are alternately arranged at the specified period, in the second pattern string, the plural first patterns and the plural second patterns represented by the two colors different in lightness are combined and are arranged, and the second pattern string is printed to be shifted from the first pattern string in the first direction by almost the half period, and in the code pattern, an end pattern is printed at a termination part of at least one of the first and the second pattern strings in the insertion direction and a slit is formed in the end pattern.