Patent ID: 8837011

Claim:
An image processing apparatus which controls an exposure amount in forming an electrostatic latent image on an image carrier by scanning and exposing the image carrier in a main scanning direction using an exposure unit, which image carrier moves in a sub-scanning direction perpendicular to the main-scanning direction, comprising: an obtaining unit configured to obtain position information indicating a scanning position in the sub-scanning direction on the image carrier; an interval calculation unit configured to calculate a first scanning line interval and a second scanning line interval, by using position information about a scanning line of interest to be scanned and position information about a scanned scanning line which has already been scanned, wherein the first scanning line interval indicates a distance in the sub-scanning direction between the scanning line of interest and a succeeding scanning line to be scanned after the scanning line of interest, and wherein the second scanning line interval indicates a distance in the sub-scanning direction between the scanning line of interest and the scanned scanning line; a density calculation unit configured to calculate a predicted density in the scanning line of interest using the first scanning line interval and the second scanning line interval; a rate calculation unit configured to calculate a correction rate on an exposure amount for the scanning line of interest so that the predicted density matches with a reference density calculated using a predetermined reference scanning line interval; and a correction unit configured to correct the exposure amount for the scanning line of interest by multiplying the exposure amount by the correction rate.