Apparatus for forming superimposed image patterns having controlled densities

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming portion having a multiple image forming stations, each forming a color separated image with a corresponding developer in accordance with color-separated image information;
• a transfer means for superimposing color separated images formed on the multiple image forming stations, one over another and transferring the superimposition;
• a pattern image forming means for making each image forming station form a predetermined pattern image;
• a pattern image density measuring means for measuring the density of the pattern image;
• and
• a timing control means which performs control in such a sequence that one image forming station to be the reference, in the image forming portion, forms a pattern image;
• the image forming station to be adjusted forms another pattern image, which is superimposed over the pattern image formed by the reference image forming station;
• the pattern image density measuring means measures the density of the superimposed pattern image so as to judge the superimposed state of the pattern image based on the measured density;
• and the image forming station to be adjusted is controlled so as to perform image forming at a timing so that the measured density will fall within a predetermined permissible density range, wherein the pattern image is greater than the measuring area of the pattern image density measuring means and the line width and line spacing of the multiple lines of the pattern image are set so that any part of the pattern image within the measuring area will produce an approximately constant density value.