A transfer belt includes: an elastic layer, wherein the transfer belt is used to transfer a toner image onto a recording medium, the toner image being carried on a first main surface which is one of a pair of main exposed surfaces including the first main surface and a second main surface, when, using a lower block and an upper block, the transfer belt is placed on an upper surface of the lower block, a part of the transfer belt is interposed between a curved convex surface and a curved concave surface, and a pressed region reaches a pressing force of 200 [kPa] and is constantly pressed by the pressing force, if “a” represents a maximum value of displacement of a measurement region, and “b” represents displacement of the measurement region after convergence, E [−] calculated by (a−b)/b satisfies a condition of 0.2≦E≦3.

An image forming apparatus includes a formation target that is wound around rotating bodies including a driving roller and transported by the rotating bodies including the driving roller while forming a shape having linear portions each of which forms a different angle, which is an acute angle or an angle of zero degrees, with a horizontal direction when viewed in an axial direction of the driving roller, first image forming bodies that are arranged along one of the linear portions in such a manner as to be spaced apart from each other by a first distance and that form images onto the formation target, and second image forming bodies that are arranged along another one of the linear portions, the other linear portion forming the angle larger than the angle formed by the one linear portion, in such a manner as to be spaced apart from each other by a second distance shorter than the first distance and that form images onto the formation target.

An image formation apparatus includes: an image carrier; a developing device which develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier as a toner image; a transfer device which transfers the toner image to a medium; a cleaning device which recovers toner remaining on the image carrier after the toner image is transferred; and a lubricant application adjustment mechanism which applies a lubricant on the image carrier and recovers toner present on the image carrier upstream of the cleaning device; and a controller which controls the lubricant application adjustment mechanism. The controller causes the lubricant application adjustment mechanism to recover more toner when the toner image formed on the image carrier has a larger image area ratio.

A high quality image excellent in low-temperature fixability and good in color stability can be formed by an image forming method of the present invention. In the image forming method, an image is formed by an electrophotographic method using toners of plural colors. Each of the toners of the plural colors contains a crystalline resin, methanol concentrations (%) at transmittance of 50% obtained for methanol wettability evaluation of the toners of the plural colors all fall in a range of 15 to 60%, and assuming that a maximum value and a minimum value of the methanol concentrations (%) at transmittance of 50% obtained for the methanol wettability evaluation of the toners of the plural colors are respectively WH(%) and WL(%), a relationship of 4≦WH−WL≦30 is satisfied.

An image-forming apparatus contains an image-forming portion, a first conveying portion that is arranged at an upstream side of the image-forming portion along a sheet conveying direction, a second conveying portion that is arranged at an upstream side of the first conveying portion along the sheet conveying direction and a control portion. The control portion controls the first conveying portion to move a pair of registration rollers along a direction that is orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction while the pair of registration rollers nips the sheet when conveying the sheet to the image-forming portion. The control portion controls the second conveying portion to move one of the pair of conveying rollers along the direction that is orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction while the pair of conveying rollers does not nip the sheet.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming section; an image reading sensor and a colorimeter; a temperature sensor; a memory that stores a first color value and a second color value in a first color chart that has a larger number of patches than a second color chart; a processor that creates a scanner profile for converting a first color value into a second color value using color values obtained by the image reading sensor and the colorimeter, corrects the scanner profile according to the color values obtained by the image reading sensor and the colorimeter, and converts the first color value into the second color value using the corrected scanner profile.

An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet conveyance unit which includes a sheet conveyance path and conveys a sheet; a sheet detector which detects the sheet in the sheet conveyance path; a job acquiring unit which acquires a print job related to the sheet; an image forming unit which forms an image on the sheet; and a processor which controls the sheet conveyance unit to perform one of first sheet conveyance and second sheet conveyance, the first sheet conveyance being performed to convey the sheet in accordance with sheet information, the second sheet conveyance being performed to convey the sheet and discharge the sheet to outside in accordance with a result of detection, wherein when sheet conveyance is resumed after suspension, the processor controls the sheet conveyance unit to perform the second sheet conveyance on a remaining sheet.

A device for detecting a travel distance of a sheet is provided. The device includes a light source for irradiating the sheet surface; an imaging sensor for capturing an image of a pattern of the sheet surface by light reflected from the sheet; a discrete Fourier transformation portion for performing discrete Fourier transformation on two patterns obtained by image capturing at a time interval by the imaging sensor; a high wave number component removal portion for using a threshold determined based on a cycle of concave-convex of the sheet surface to remove a high wave number component from the two patterns having been subjected to the discrete Fourier transformation; and a travel distance calculation portion for determining a travel distance of the sheet based on a phase relationship between the two patterns from which the high wave number component removal portion has removed the high wave number component.

An image reading apparatus includes a scanner structured to reads an image formed on a medium which is conveyed; a calibration member located opposite to the scanner and structured to reflect irradiation light to be radiated to the medium when reading an image; a first roller arranged in a fixed position and structured to guide a conveying direction of the medium passing between the scanner and the calibration member; and a second roller arranged in a variable position in accordance with the stiffness of the medium and structured to guide the conveying direction of the medium passing between the scanner and the calibration member.

An image forming apparatus includes halogen lamp heaters, an AC power supply, a temperature detection unit and a control unit. The heaters have a same light distribution and heat a fixing member of an image fixing unit. The detection unit detects a temperature of the fixing member. The control unit determines a combination of the heaters based on output of the detection unit and applies a drive voltage of a half-wave of an AC waveform of the AC power supply to a heater of the heaters. The half-wave is selected based on an application pattern having a duty cycle of a predetermined value or more. The heaters include at least one heater which generates a heat amount being a minimum heat amount required for fixing or less when turned on with the application pattern having the duty cycle of the predetermined value.