Patent ID: 7653319

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a photoreceptor drum having an image area and a non-image area formed on a circumferential surface thereof, the image area having contact with a recording sheet in an image forming process, the recording sheet moving in a sheet transport direction; a cleaning unit that has a blade positioned so as to be in contact with the image area and the non-image area of the photoreceptor drum; an exposing unit for forming an electrostatic latent image on the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum by irradiating the circumferential surface along a fast scanning direction with light modulated according to image data, the image data including primary image data that is used for modulating light with which to irradiate the image area; a developing unit for developing the electrostatic latent image by applying developer to the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum; and a control section for supplying the image data to the exposing unit, wherein the control section performs an image addition processing in which secondary image data is added to the primary image data, the secondary image data being used for modulating light with which to irradiate the non-image area, the secondary image data is formed on the non-image area on the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum, the non-image area being an area in which the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum does not have contact with the recording sheet while the recording sheet, moving in the sheet transport direction, has contact with the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum and is laterally outside of an area of contact with the recording sheet in the fast scanning direction and does not include a non-contact area between recording sheets, density of a secondary image in the non-image area corresponding to the secondary image data is determined based upon humidity level of the image forming apparatus, and the developer corresponding to the primary image data is transferred from the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum to the recording medium in a transfer process while the developer corresponding to the secondary image data remains as residual toner on the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum after the transfer process.