Patent ID: 8587627

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit including a plurality of photosensitive members, an exposure unit configured to irradiate each of the plurality of photosensitive members with a corresponding light beam, a light amount control unit configured to control a light amount of the light beams emitted from the exposure unit, a plurality of developing units configured to develop electrostatic latent images, formed on the plurality of photosensitive members by exposure with the light beams, by using different toners, and a transfer unit configured to transfer toner images formed on the plurality of photosensitive members onto an image carrier; a pattern forming unit configured to control the image forming unit to form, on the image carrier, a misalignment detection pattern for detecting a relative misalignment between the toner images transferred onto the image carrier from the plurality of photosensitive members; a pattern reading unit configured to read the misalignment detection pattern; and a correction unit configured to correct the relative misalignment between the toner images based on the reading result obtained by the pattern reading unit, wherein the light amount control unit controls the light amount of the light beams which are exposed on the photosensitive members to a first light amount in order to form the misalignment detection pattern, and controls the light amount of the light beams to a second light amount in order to form an image based on image data from an external apparatus or a reading apparatus, wherein the first light amount is greater than the second light amount, and wherein when the second light amount is controlled to an upper limit value, the light amount control unit controls the first light amount to a light amount greater than the upper limit value in order to form the misalignment detection pattern.