Patent ID: 8396386

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a latent image bearing member, rotated to bear an electrostatic latent image on a surface thereof; a charger to evenly charge the surface of the latent image bearing member; an electrostatic latent image forming device to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image bearing member; a developing device to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the latent image bearing member into a toner image using toner; a transfer bias application device to apply a transfer bias to an image transfer area where the latent image bearing member faces a recording medium onto which the toner image is to be transferred from the surface of the latent image bearing member; a pre-transfer neutralizing device to reduce an electric potential at a portion on the surface of the latent image bearing member that is to face a leading edge area of the recording medium at the image transfer area after development performed by the developing device; a surface electric potential detector to detect an electric potential at the surface of the latent image bearing member; a radiation amount control device to control an amount of radiation from the pre-transfer neutralizing device based on a detection result obtained by the surface electric potential detector; and a control unit to control the transfer bias application device to supply a leading edge transfer bias to the image transfer area before a leading edge of the recording medium enters the image transfer area, and then supply a normal transfer bias higher than the leading edge transfer bias to the image transfer area before a rear end of the leading edge area of the recording medium enters the image transfer area, wherein the control unit controls the leading edge transfer bias based on the detection result obtained by the surface electric potential detector.