Patent ID: 7715770

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a plurality of image carrying members arranged in line along a travel direction of a transfer body; an exposure unit configured to expose to light the image carrying members that are electrically charged so as to form electrostatic latent images; a plurality of developing units configured to develop the electrostatic latent images by use of developers corresponding to respective colors for the respective image carrying members; a carrying unit configured to carry the transfer body; a transfer unit configured to transfer the developers of the respective colors from the image carrying members to the transfer body to form developer images on the transfer body; a detection unit including a light emitting device and a light receiving device, wherein the detection unit is configured to cause the light emitting device to emit light, to cause the light receiving device to receive the light reflected by an object, and to produce a detection signal having a varying signal level responsive to an intensity of the received reflected light, thereby detecting the developer images of respective colors formed on the transfer body by the exposure unit, the developing units, and the transfer unit; a color misalignment correction unit configured to correct color misalignment resulting from positional misalignment between the developer images of respective colors transferred onto the transfer body by controlling the exposure unit in response to detected data indicative of the developer images detected in the detection signal produced by the detection unit; and an adjustment unit configured to identify a plurality of peak positions in the detection signal corresponding to a single detection of a single line serving as a single developer image and to adjust the detected data indicative of the developer images detected in the detection signal in response to differences in the peak positions, said plurality of peak positions in the detection signal including a position of a negative peak and two positions of positive peaks.