Patent ID: 8177349

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming device which forms an image on a recording medium; a transparent UV ink droplet ejection device which ejects and deposits droplets of transparent UV ink onto the recording medium; a UV light irradiation device having at least one UV light source which irradiates UV light onto the transparent UV ink having been deposited on the recording medium; a gloss condition setting device which sets a gloss condition including a gloss level of the image; and a UV light irradiation timing control device which controls a time interval from ejection of the transparent UV ink onto the recording medium until irradiation of the UV light from the UV light irradiation device in accordance with the gloss condition in such a manner that, the higher the gloss level of the image set by the gloss condition setting device is, the longer the time interval from ejection of the transparent UV ink onto the recording medium until irradiation of the UV light.