Patent ID: 8066365

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an intermediate transfer member; an ink absorbing particle supplying unit that supplies ink absorbing particles on a surface of the intermediate transfer member; an ink ejecting unit that ejects ink in accordance with an image signal, to the ink absorbing particles supplied on the surface of the intermediate transfer member; a transferring unit that transfers the ink absorbing particles that have absorbed the ink ejected on the intermediate transfer member from the ink ejecting unit to a recording medium, the transferring unit being disposed on a downstream side from the ink ejecting unit along a rotating direction of the intermediate transfer member; a fixing unit that fixes the ink absorbing particles transferred to the recording medium on the recording medium; a particle collecting unit that collects remaining ink absorbing particles on the intermediate transfer member, the particle collecting unit being disposed on a downstream side from the image transfer unit along the rotating direction of the intermediate transfer member; a humidity reducing unit that reduces relative humidity around the ink absorbing particles collected by the particle collecting unit; and a collected particle supplying unit that supplies the collected ink absorbing particles with humidity reduced by the humidity reducing unit to the ink absorbing particle supplying unit; wherein the fixing unit heats the ink absorbing particles, and the humidity reducing unit carries heat from the fixing unit, heats the ink absorbing particles collected by the particle collecting unit with the heat carried from the fixing unit, thereby reducing relative humidity around the ink absorbing particles.