Patent ID: 8041241

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; an exposing unit configured to expose a surface of the image carrier with exposure energy based on image data corresponding to dot images to form a latent image; and a developing unit configured to perform a developer contact developing method by applying a developing bias onto a developer carrier carrying a non-magnetic one-component developer and causing the non-magnetic one-component developer on the developer carrier to contact the image carrier, thereby developing the latent image on the image carrier into a toner image, wherein: the toner image on the image carrier is transferred onto a recording material, either directly or via a surface of an intermediate transfer body; and the developing bias or the exposure energy is adjusted such that an isolated one-dot image has a predetermined image density, the image forming apparatus further comprising: a control unit configured to control the exposing unit in such a manner that, when the image carrier is exposed to form the dot images continuously arranged in a main scanning direction, a width of a latent image potential distribution in the main scanning direction corresponding to each of the dot images on the image carrier is shorter than that when the image carrier is exposed to form the isolated one-dot image, wherein: the control unit controls the exposing unit in such a manner that, when the image carrier is exposed to form the dot images continuously arranged in the main scanning direction, an exposure time period for each dot image is shorter than that when the image carrier is exposed to form the isolated one-dot image, and the control unit controls the exposing unit in such a manner that, when the image carrier is exposed to form three or more dot images continuously arranged in the main scanning direction, the exposure time period for a middle dot image positioned in between edge dot images is shorter than that for each of the edge dot images.