Patent ID: 8711421

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a main image forming section for imposing a plurality of jobs and thereby generating at least one piece of main image data; and an interleaf image forming section for generating an interleaf image depending on the jobs of the main image data and generating interleaf image data including the interleaf image, wherein the interleaf image forming section includes a job position detector for detecting position of the jobs of the main image data, and establish a position of the interleaf image on the interleaf image data based on the detected position of the jobs, the interleaf image forming section comprises; a data reader for reading two pieces of main image data to be printed before and after printing of an: image based on the interleaf image data, based on a print order in which the main image data and the interleaf image data are printed; a job state extractor for extracting a color or pattern of the side edges of the jobs of the two pieces of main image data; and an image generator for generating the interleaf image based on the color or pattern extracted by the job state extractor, and the image forming apparatus further comprising a color/pattern establishing section for automatically establishing a color of the image formed in an area of the interleaf image data to have a color difference of 20 or greater in a device-independent space, based on the color of the side edges of the jobs extracted by the job state extractor.