Patent ID: 8757909

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a conveying unit configured to convey a continuous sheet; an image forming unit for forming a plurality of images on a first side and a second side of the continuous sheet conveyed by the conveying unit; a maintenance pattern forming unit configured to cause the image forming unit to form a maintenance pattern on the second side of the continuous sheet; a cutting unit configured to cut the continuous sheet; a reversing unit configured to wind up the continuous sheet of which a trailing end is cut by the cutting unit after the plurality of images has been formed on the first side of the continuous sheet by the image forming unit and to convey the cut continuous sheet to the image forming unit with the trailing end as a leading end; and a control unit for controlling the cutting unit, wherein the control unit causes the cutting unit to cut the continuous sheet at a trailing end of each image formed on the first side in a case where the plurality of images is formed only on the first side of the continuous sheet, and causes the cutting unit not to cut at a trailing end of each image formed on the first side and to cut the continuous sheet at a position where a margin, which corresponds to a size of the maintenance pattern, is added to a last image of the plurality of images formed on the first side of the continuous sheet in a case where the plurality of images is formed both on the first side and the second side of the continuous sheet.