An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus which forms an image on a sheet, an image reading apparatus which reads the image formed on the sheet by the image forming apparatus, and a finisher which performs a post-printing process with the sheet. The image forming system further includes: a paper path which is provided in the image reading apparatus and through which the sheet is passed; and an electricity eliminator which is arranged in the upstream side of the finisher to eliminate static electricity of the sheet, wherein the electricity eliminator applies at least one of water and charge to front and back sides of the sheet.

A preheating device includes two first inverting members disposed at different positions while obliquely intersecting a feeding direction of a continuous recording medium on which an unfixed image is formed, the first inverting members inverting the recording medium by passing a back surface of the recording medium, on which the unfixed image is not formed, therealong before a fixing operation, and at least one heating rotating body disposed at a position further on an outside than a side edge portion of the recording medium in the feeding direction to preheat the recording medium before the fixing operation by passing a portion of the back surface of the recording medium present between the two first inverting members so that the portion of the back surface is wound around the heating rotating body.

The present invention relates to an image forming method in which an electrophotographic cartridge is disposed in at least four-color tandem with respect to a transfer material transporting body, in which, in a case where a fixing step side of the transfer material transporting body is set as a downstream side, and a cleaning step side of the transfer material transporting body is set as an upstream side, a total amount of use amount of specific external additives contained in the toner for each of the color electrophotographic cartridges is adjusted to a specific amount, and a specific amount of a specific external additive is used for toner provided in the electrophotographic cartridge on the most downstream side.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes: an electrostatic latent image retainer; an intermediate transfer body; a primary transfer member to transfer toner image retained by the electrostatic latent image retainer to an imaging region of the intermediate transfer body; a secondary transfer member to transfer the transferred toner image from the intermediate transfer body to a transfer medium; a toner forcible discharger to forcibly discharge toner into a non-imaging region of the intermediate transfer body; and a controller to control a volume of the toner to be forcibly discharged. The intermediate transfer body is a multi-layer belt including a base layer and an outermost coating layer. The coating layer contains silicon dioxide. The controller reduces the volume of the toner to be forcibly discharged based on use history information of the intermediate transfer body, compared to the volume at an initial stage of use.

An image forming apparatus includes a first medium supply unit, a second medium supply unit, and an image forming unit. The image forming unit forms, upon receiving an instruction to print document data for a plural number of sets, an image of the document data on a medium supplied from the first medium supply unit up to a preset number of the plural number of sets and forms an image of the document data on a medium supplied from the second medium supply unit for a remaining number of the plural number of sets.

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device and circuitry. The fixing device includes a pair of rotators and a heater. The pair of rotators forms a nip through which recording media pass in a conveyance direction. The heater heats at least one of the pair of rotators to fix images printed on the recording media. The circuitry is configured to acquire image data of the images to be printed on the recording media within three minutes after a start of printing the images on the recording media and set an output of the heater to be lower than a predetermined reference value within the three minutes after the start of printing based on the image data.

The image forming apparatus includes a crimping/release mechanism that switches between a crimping position where a transfer nip is formed and a release position where the intermediate transfer belt and the photosensitive drum are separated from each other, by moving at least one primary transfer section of a plurality of primary transfer sections provided facing a plurality of photosensitive drums respectively, and a processor that performs color misregistration adjustment when a combination of image forming units used for image formation is changed.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms a first image and a second image and transfers the first and second images to a recording medium, the first image including a metallic color image, the second image not including the metallic color image; and a fixing unit that fixes the first image and the second image to the recording medium. The image forming apparatus has a mode in which, when forming the first image on only one of a first surface and a second surface of the recording medium, the image forming unit transfers the first image to the first surface of the recording medium and the fixing unit fixes the first image to the first surface, and subsequently the image forming unit transfers the second image to the second surface of the recording medium and the fixing unit fixes the second image to the second surface.

An image forming apparatus includes a first image forming unit that forms a transparent toner image by using a transparent toner, a second image forming unit that forms a metal-colored toner image by using a metal-colored toner containing a flat metallic pigment, and a fixing device that fixes a toner image to a recording medium as a result of a heating member contacting and heating the toner image. The image forming apparatus has a mode in which the transparent toner image is superimposed upon the metal-colored toner image, and the toner images are fixed by the fixing device.

The digital printing process includes the printing of liquid toner on both substrate sides. Thereto developed portions of a first and a second liquid toner are transferred to the first side and fused by exposure to infrared radiation and by subsequent contact fusing. The substrate is conditioned for a further transfer step by maintaining a substantially uniform water content therein during and after the fusing step, in which further transfer step at least one further developed portion of liquid toner is transferred to a side of the substrate. This occurs particularly by limiting heat development in the liquid toner, such as by using a black toner liquid with an absorbance at 800 nm of at most than 0.8.