Patent ID: 7484827

Claim:
An image forming method of an image forming apparatus having a head mounting a plurality of writing units that form an image on a recording medium, the plurality of writing units being aligned in a sub-scanning direction, which corresponds to a direction of scanning by the plurality of writing units perpendicular to a main-scanning direction, which corresponds to a direction of movement of the recording medium, the image forming method comprising: forming a part of the image on the recording medium by the plurality of writing units, the part of the image forming a line extending in the main-scanning direction; repeating the step of forming a part of the image while shifting the plurality of writing units in the sub-scanning direction by a predetermined amount of shift; and varying the amount of shift of the plurality of writing units so that an amount of misalignment in a connecting portion between the parts of the image on the recording medium is reduced, wherein a determination of the amount of shift of the plurality of writing units to be varied and the shift of the plurality of writing units by the determined amount of shift are made while said head faces an area where no image is formed.