Patent ID: 7769310

Claim:
An image forming apparatus that includes a structure in which an electrostatic latent image formed on a latent image carrier is developed into a visible image, and the visible image is transferred onto a transfer material being carried by a conveying member, the image forming apparatus comprising: a pre-transfer exposing unit configured to expose only a portion of the latent image carrier that corresponds to a leading edge of the transfer material before the visible image is transferred to the transfer material; a transfer-bias applying unit configured to apply to the transfer material biases of different bias values for transferring the visible image onto the transfer material; and a transfer material determining unit configured to determine the type of the transfer material, wherein the transfer-bias applying unit is configured to apply a first bias of a first bias value to the leading edge of the transfer material, and to apply a second bias of a second bias value larger than the first bias value to the transfer material when a predetermined time, corresponding to a time required to reach a leading edge of a predetermined image portion of the transfer material, is passed from a point of time at which the leading edge of the transfer material comes into contact with the latent image carrier, and timing of the pre-transfer exposing unit and the transfer bias applying unit are controlled in accordance with the determined type of the transfer material and image forming mode.