Patent ID: 8469471

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a carriage configured to move in a scan direction; a recording head mounted on the carriage, the recording head including plural nozzles and configured to record a recording medium by discharging ink via the nozzles onto the recording medium; a detection unit configured to detect whether one or more expendable supplies required for image formation are specific expendable supplies; a notifying unit configured to notify an operator upon detection of a non-specific expendable supply; and an image forming method changing unit configured to automatically change an image forming method that is currently set, wherein the changing of the image forming method is performed by modifying a part of a standard image forming method, wherein the changing of the image forming method involves increasing the number of scan passes made by the recording head for image formation, wherein a standby time between successive vertical scan operations is extended to be longer than that of the image forming method that is currently set, and wherein the changing of the image forming method involves extending a standby time that is provided in an interval between a switching of recording surfaces, when printing both top and bottom surfaces of the recording medium successively and when detecting that an expendable supply of the one or more expendable supplies required for image formation is a non-specific expendable supply.