Patent ID: 7200353

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a rotary image carrier, on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a developer, operable to supply toner onto the image carrier to make the latent image visible as a toner image; an intermediate transfer member, adapted to temporarily hold the toner image thereon; and a first transferer, which presses the intermediate transfer member against the image carrier to define a primary transfer position therebetween, so that the toner image on the image carrier is transferred to the intermediate transfer member; a first member, operable to separably come in contact with either the intermediate transfer member or the image carrier; and a controller, operable to start forming the latent image after a predetermined time period elapses since at least one of a first position in a first region of the intermediate transfer member and a second region on the image carrier corresponding to the first region has passed through the primary transfer position, wherein: the first region is not adapted to receive, from the image carrier, the toner image to be transferred to the recording medium; and the first position is either a position to which the first member comes in contact or a position from which the first member is separated.