Patent ID: 6898407

Claim:
A color image forming apparatus, comprising: an image generating mechanism including, an image forming mechanism configured to form a color image and including a plurality of image creating mechanisms configured to form an image via a photosensitive member, an optical writing mechanism configured to optically write an image on the photosensitive member of each of the plurality of image creating mechanisms, an intermediate image-transfer member including an image transfer bed moving in a predetermined direction in a lower part of the intermediate image-transfer member to receive on a surface of the image transfer bed a transfer of a plurality of the images from the respective photosensitive members of the plurality of image creating mechanisms such that the plurality of the images are sequentially overlaid to form a multi-overlaid image, a fixing mechanism configured to fix the multi-overlaid image on a recording sheet, a sheet ejecting mechanism configured to eject the recording sheet having the fixed multi-overlaid image thereon, a toner container configured to replenish toner to the image forming mechanism, and an electric circuit which includes a plurality of circuit blocks and supplies power and necessary signals to the apparatus; and a sheet supply mechanism configured to supply recording sheets through a sheet inlet thereof to the image generating mechanism, wherein the intermediate image-transfer member is arranged with a predetermined angle relative to a horizontal line such that a rear side of the intermediate image-transfer member away from the recording sheet is lifted and a front side of the intermediate image-transfer member closer to the recording sheet is lowered, and wherein the plurality of image creating mechanisms are aligned in parallel and are arranged along and parallel to the image transfer bed of the intermediate image-transfer member such that one of the plurality of image creating mechanisms firstly forming an image faces the rear side of the image transfer bed and another one of the plurality of image creating mechanisms lastly forming an image faces the front side of the image transfer bed.