Patent ID: 8457516

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; an image forming member configured to form a toner image on the image carrier; a transferer located to face the image carrier, configured to transfer the toner image from the image carrier directly onto a recording medium transported by a surface moving member or onto the recording medium after transferring the toner image onto a surface of the surface moving member; a toner image detector located adjacent to the surface moving member, configured to detect a test toner image formed in a test toner image detection area located at an end portion of the surface moving member; an environment detector configured to detect at least one of a temperature and a humidity inside the image forming apparatus; a cleaner contacting the surface moving member, configured to remove toner adhered to the surface moving member; and a controller configured to check a length of the recording medium in a main scanning direction during continuous image formation to form images on multiple recording media successively and control the image forming member to form the test toner image, wherein, when the length of the recording medium in a main scanning direction is longer than a value obtained by deducting two times a length of the test toner image detection area from a length of the surface moving member in the main scanning direction, the test toner image is formed in a space between the recording media, and, when the length of the recording medium in a main scanning direction is shorter than the value obtained by deducting two times the length of the test toner image detection area from the length of the surface moving member in the main scanning direction, the test toner image is formed parallel to toner images transferred onto the recording media, wherein the controller changes the test toner image based on a result generated by the environment detector, and wherein, when the environment detector detects one of a high temperature condition and a high humidity condition, the controller changes a length of the test toner image in the main scanning direction.