Image density correction for an image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorShinichi Akatsu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer, an image forming section, an image density difference detector, and control circuitry. The image forming section is configured to form a gradation image pattern on a surface of the image bearer. The gradation image pattern includes gradation images having different image densities stepwise in a sub-scanning direction. The image density difference detector is configured to detect image density differences in a main scanning direction of the gradation images. The control circuitry is configured to execute an image density difference correction mode that corrects the image density differences in the main scanning direction based on detection results detected by the image density difference detector.
Claims8
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- at least one image bearer;
- an image forming section configured to form a plurality of gradation image patterns on the at least one image bearer, each gradation image pattern formed using a different color toner,
- wherein each gradation image pattern comprises a plurality of continuous stripes extending in a main scanning direction,
- wherein the continuous stripes have a same target image density in the main scanning direction and different target image densities stepwise in a sub-scanning direction;
- an image density difference detector configured to detect image density differences in the main scanning direction;
- and
- in response to executing an image density difference correction mode, control circuitry is configured, for each of the gradation image patterns, to identify a continuous stripe having a largest density variation in the main scanning direction, to generate an image density correction factor for the color toner used for the gradation image pattern based on the identified continuous stripe, and to reduce image density variations in the main scanning direction for the color toner using the image density correction factor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.