Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• an intermediate transfer member;
• an ink absorbing particle supplying unit that supplies ink absorbing particles on a surface of the intermediate transfer member;
• an ink ejecting unit that ejects ink in accordance with an image signal, to the ink absorbing particles supplied on the surface of the intermediate transfer member;
• a transferring unit that transfers the ink absorbing particles that have absorbed the ink ejected on the intermediate transfer member from the ink ejecting unit to a recording medium, the transferring unit being disposed on a downstream side from the ink ejecting unit along a rotating direction of the intermediate transfer member;
• a fixing unit that fixes the ink absorbing particles transferred to the recording medium on the recording medium;
• a particle collecting unit that collects remaining ink absorbing particles on the intermediate transfer member, the particle collecting unit being disposed on a downstream side from the image transfer unit along the rotating direction of the intermediate transfer member;
• a humidity reducing unit that reduces relative humidity around the ink absorbing particles collected by the particle collecting unit;
• and
• a collected particle supplying unit that supplies the collected ink absorbing particles with humidity reduced by the humidity reducing unit to the ink absorbing particle supplying unit.