Image forming method and image forming apparatus

An image forming method comprising:

• a printing step of printing two identical images on an intermediate transfer-recording medium, by using image data representing an image to be transferred to a final transfer-recording medium;
• a first inspecting step of inspecting the two images printed on the intermediate transfer-recording medium in the printing step, by reading the images from the intermediate transfer-recording medium and comparing the images, thereby to determine whether the images have defects;
• a second inspecting step of comparing the images to determine whether the images have defects, by comparing the two images read from the intermediate transfer-recording medium in the first inspecting step, with an image represented by the image data, thereby to determine whether the tow images have defects, in the case where at least one image is found to have no defects in the first inspecting step;
• an extra printing step of printing two identical images, by using the image data, on another region of the intermediate transfer-recording medium, in the case where the two images are found to have defects in the second inspecting step;
• a third inspecting step of reading and comparing the two images printed on the intermediate transfer-recording medium in the extra printing step, thereby to determine whether the images have defects;
• a fourth inspecting step of comparing the two images read from the intermediate transfer-recording medium in the third inspecting step, with the image represented by the image data, in the case where at lease one image is found to have no defects in the third inspecting step, and then comparing the two images read from the intermediate transfer-recording medium in the first inspecting step, with the two images read from the intermediate transfer-recording medium in the third inspecting step, thereby to determine whether the two images read in the third inspecting step have detects;
• and
• a transferring step of transferring an image found to have no defects in the fourth inspecting step, from the intermediate transfer-recording medium to the final transfer-recording medium.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• printing means for printing at least two identical images on an intermediate transfer-recording medium, by using image data representing an image to be transferred to a final transfer-recording medium;
• inspecting means for inspecting the images printed on the intermediate transfer-recording medium by the printing means, by reading and comparing the images thereby to determine whether the images have defects;
• and
• transferring means for transferring an image found to have no defects by the inspecting means, from the intermediate transfer-recording medium to the final transfer-recording medium.