Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming unit to form a toner image;
• an image bearer contacting the image forming unit to bear the toner image, the image bearer movable in a moving direction;
• a transferor contacting the image bearer to transfer the toner image from the image bearer to a recording medium;
• a cleaner contacting the image bearer to clean a surface of the image bearer;
• a sensor;
• and
• circuitry configured to:
• control the image forming unit to form multiple toner patches arranged at a first interval on the image bearer in an orthogonal direction orthogonal to the moving direction, at least one of the multiple toner patches being outside a maximum width of the recording medium usable in the image forming apparatus in the orthogonal direction;
• control the sensor to detect the multiple toner patches;
• adjust the image forming unit based on a detection of the multiple toner patches by the sensor as an adjustment operation;
• separate the transferor from the image bearer during the adjustment operation;
• control the image forming unit to form multiple patterns arranged at a second interval in the moving direction based on the transferor being separated from the image bearer, each of the multiple patterns having a band shape extending in the orthogonal direction;
• maintain the transferor separate from the image bearer based on the multiple toner patches passing through a transfer position and the multiple patterns passing through the transfer position after the multiple toner patches;
• and
• control the image forming unit to cause the multiple patterns to continuously pass through the transfer position after the multiple toner patches pass through the transfer position while the transferor is separated from the image bearer,
• wherein each of the multiple patterns has a length longer than the maximum width of the recording medium.