In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a deflector, a photoconductor, a mirror, a displacement mechanism and a control section. The deflector deflects laser light emitted from a light source to an optical path of each color in a horizontal scanning direction. The photoconductor is located in each optical path and forms an image of each color through development of an electrostatic latent image formed by being exposed by the laser light. The mirror is located in each optical path and reflects the laser light to each corresponding photoconductor. The displacement mechanism is arranged on each mirror and displaces the mirror in order to correct an inclination shift between images of respective colors. The control section corrects a magnification of the image of each color in the horizontal scanning direction according to an inclination correction amount of the image of each color.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a deflector, a photoconductor, a mirror, a displacement mechanism and a control section. The deflector deflects laser light emitted from a light source to an optical path of each color in a horizontal scanning direction. The photoconductor is located in each optical path and forms an image of each color through development of an electrostatic latent image formed by being exposed by the laser light. The mirror is located in each optical path and reflects the laser light to each corresponding photoconductor. The displacement mechanism is arranged on each mirror and displaces the mirror in order to correct an inclination shift between images of respective colors. The control section corrects a magnification of the image of each color in the horizontal scanning direction according to an inclination correction amount of the image of each color.

A control system controls an image forming unit that includes a charging device, an image bearer to be charged by the charging device, a light-emitting device array including a plurality of light emitting devices, and a driving causing the light emitting devices to emit light to form a latent image on the image bearer. The control system includes a storage unit, a corrector, and a controller. The storage unit is configured to store a light-amount correction value of each of the light emitting devices. The corrector is configured to correct a pixel value of each pixel in image data, based on the light-amount correction value of each light emitting device stored in the storage unit. The controller is configured to control the driver to cause each light emitting device to emit light based on image data for which a pixel value of each pixel has been corrected.

A laser scanning device includes light source, deflection portion, image forming lens, a block position setting portion, and a light source control portion. The image forming lens condenses a light beam deflected by the deflection portion on a scanned surface, and causes the light beam to be scanned on the scanned surface in a scanning direction at an equal speed. The block position setting portion sets one or more block areas which each include a plurality of section areas sectioned from each other on the scanned surface in the scanning direction. The light source control portion controls the light source to irradiate the light beam to the plurality of section areas at a plurality of irradiation timings that are determined for each of the block areas. The block position setting portion shifts set positions of the block areas along the scanning direction for each scan of at least one line.

An image forming apparatus of the present invention acquires first correction characteristics representing an output density for an input gradation value at a reference position in a main scanning direction and second correction characteristics representing a relative relationship of an output density at a predetermined position in the main scanning direction with the output density at the reference position in the main scanning direction. Then, the image forming apparatus corrects image data corresponding to the predetermined position in the main scanning direction based on the first correction characteristics and the second correction characteristics.

The image forming apparatus includes an exposure head. The exposure head includes an organic EL element array and a rod lens array, and forms an image on a photosensitive drum by irradiating light emitted from each organic EL element on the photoreceptor via each rod lens. In the exposure head, light emitting from the organic EL element is controlled by a controller. The controller generates a filter coefficient for correcting a spot shape based on the difference between the spot shape of the light spot on the photosensitive drum and the target spot shape on the photosensitive drum. It is noted that the difference is generated by the deviation between the distance from the organic EL element to the photosensitive drum, and the correct focus position.

An image forming apparatus includes a first optical writer; a second optical writer adjacent to the first optical writer in the scanning direction; an image former; and multiple sensors. Each end of the first scanning region and the second scanning region is overlapped in a first overlapping region of the first image bearer at a center of the first image bearer in the scanning direction. The image former forms a first correction pattern in a first transfer region in the second image bearer corresponding to the first scanning region of the first image bearer; and a second correction pattern in a second transfer region in the second image bearer corresponding to the second scanning region of the first image bearer. The multiple sensors include a common sensor to detect both the first correction pattern and the second correction pattern in a second overlapping region on the second image bearer.