Method and apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium with contraction and expansion properties

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• conveying means for conveying a recording medium;
• recording means disposed such that said first recording means faces a principal surface of the recording medium conveyed by said conveying means, said first recording means serving to form an image on the principal surface of the recording medium by applying a recording agent, via a recording head, to the principal surface of said recording medium;
• recording medium storing means disposed on an extension of the conveying path of said conveying means, said recording medium storing means serving to temporarily store the recording medium received via said conveying means while preserving the recording staffing position;
• recording medium turning-over/conveying means for conveying the recording medium stored in said recording medium storing means from the recording starting position such that the back surface of said recording medium faces said recording means;
• back surface image forming means for transmitting image data converted in a mirror-symmetric fashion in the conveying direction to said recording means;
• and
• both-side alignment controlling means for controlling the positions where images are formed so that the image formed on the back surface of the recording medium conveyed by said recording medium turning-over/conveying means becomes coincident with the image formed on the principal surface of the recording medium.

A method of forming an image on a recording medium by applying a recording agent to said recording medium, said method comprising:

• a first image forming step in which an image is formed on one surface of the recording medium by applying a recording agent in accordance with image data;
• a conveying step in which the recording medium on which the image has been formed in said first image forming step is conveyed;
• an evaluation step in which the state of the recording medium conveyed in said conveying step is evaluated;
• a processing step in which said image data is processed in accordance with the result of the evaluation made in said evaluation step;
• and
• a second image forming step in which in accordance with the image data processed in said processing step an image is formed on the surface opposite to the surface on which the image has been formed in said first image forming step.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium using a recording head, said apparatus comprising:

• conveying means for conveying a recording medium;
• evaluation means for evaluating the state of the conveyed recording medium;
• processing means for processing image data to be recorded, in accordance with the result of the evaluation;
• and
• recording process controlling means for controlling the image forming process such that an image is formed by said recording head on one surface of said recording means in accordance with image data, the state of the recording medium having the image formed on said one surface thereof conveyed by said conveying means is evaluated by said evaluation means, the image data is processed by said processing means in accordance with the result of the evaluation, and an image is formed by said recording head on the surface opposite to the surface on which the image has been formed.