Patent ID: 8446597

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a direct-transfer control unit that causes a direct-transfer medium and a first image forming unit that forms a single-color image to transfer the single-color image onto either the direct-transfer medium or a transfer sheet, wherein both the direct-transfer medium and the transfer sheet move due to rotation of the direct-transfer medium; an indirect-transfer control unit that causes an intermediate transfer medium and a second image forming unit that forms a multi-color image to transfer the multi-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium; a secondary-transfer control unit that transfers, as a secondary transfer and after the single-color image has been transferred onto the direct-transfer medium under the control of the direct-transfer control unit, the single-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium; a sensor that detects the single-color image and the multi-color image on the intermediate transfer medium; and a positional-alignment control unit that calculates, using the sensor, an amount of misalignment of the single-color image and the multi-color image and corrects, using a position of an image formed by the first image forming unit as a reference position, positions of images to be formed by the second image forming unit in accordance with the calculated amount of misalignment.