Patent ID: 7747178

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a first input section to receive a setting instruction of an output cycle of a sample output which represents a number of regular prints to be outputted each cycle before executing the sample output; a second input section to receive an instruction of an immediate output of the sample output; an image forming section to form an image onto a recording medium based on image data; an ejection section to eject the recording medium subjected to the image forming; and a control section to: (i) count a number of recording media ejected by the ejection section, (ii) judge a timing of executing the sample output, at which the image forming section forms an image, based on a counted value of the number of the recording media of the regular prints and the output cycle of the sample output set by the first input section, (iii) execute the sample output of a sample output matter by the image forming section and simultaneously initialize the counted value, according to the judgment result, and (iv) execute the sample output of the sample output matter by the image forming section and simultaneously initialize the counted value when the immediate output of the sample output is instructed with the second input section.