Patent ID: 7174125

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a transporting component that transports a continuous paper at a predetermined transport speed; one or more image forming components which are arranged along the transport direction of the continuous paper transported by the transporting component and sequentially form images of respective colors based on image data included in a print job on the continuous paper being transported; a pattern image forming component that controls the image forming components so that pattern images of respective colors are formed on the continuous paper being transported; a correction amount computing component that detects a shift amount of at least one of the position and the density of the pattern images of the different colors formed on the continuous paper during transporting and computes a correction amount for correcting at least one of a formation position and density of images of the different colors on the basis of the detected shift amount; an image formation controlling component that controls the image forming components so that at least one of the image formation position and the density is corrected by using the correction amount computed by the correction amount computing component; a transport control component that controls the transporting component so that transporting of the continuous paper is stopped when a print job is finished, the continuous paper is back-transported to an image formation start position of the next print job, and after that, the continuous paper is transported again; and a control component that, when a print job is executed in the case where a pattern image exists in a back-transported area which is set after the continuous paper is back-transported, controls the image formation controlling component so as not to correct at least one of the image formation position and the density or so as to correct at least one of the image formation position and the density by using a correction amount used for the immediately preceding print job.