Patent ID: 8830286

Claim:
A color image forming apparatus which has a plurality of photosensitive members to be charged and a light irradiation unit irradiating at least one of the charged photosensitive members with light to form an electrostatic latent image, the color image forming apparatus comprising: a light emitting element emitting light and provided in the light irradiation unit; a laser driving unit causing the light emitting element to emit light in accordance with an input of print data, the laser driving unit causing the light emitting element to emit light of a light amount at a first emission level for visualizing the toner image onto a first area where the toner image is to be visualized on the charged photosensitive member and to emit light of a light amount at a second emission level for weak emission onto a second area where the toner is not to be adhered to the charged photosensitive member, wherein the laser driving unit supplies a drive current, which is obtained by adding a first drive current to a second drive current, to the light emitting element so that the light emitting element emits light of the light amount at the first emission level, and the laser driving unit supplies the second drive current to the light emitting element so that the light emitting element emits light of the light amount at the second emission level; an acquiring unit acquiring information associated with a remaining lifetime of each of the photosensitive members; a first drive current adjusting unit adjusting the first drive current; and a second drive current adjusting unit adjusting the second drive current, the second drive current adjusting unit changing a magnitude of the second drive current in accordance with the information associated with the remaining lifetime of each of the photosensitive members acquired by the acquiring unit.