Image forming apparatus that detects image shift in the main scanning direction without wasting toner

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a first conductor disposed in parallel to a first electrostatic latent image line formed on an image carrier in parallel with a main scanning direction of the image carrier;
• and
• a second conductor disposed in parallel to a second electrostatic latent image line formed on the image carrier obliquely in the main scanning direction,
• wherein induced current is generated by moving said conductors relative to the respective electrostatic latent image lines, and image shifts in the main scanning direction and a sub scanning direction are detected based on a phase difference between a first output signal from said first conductor and a second output signal from said second conductor.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a rotatable image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image line is formed;
• a conductor disposed such that said conductor partially overlaps the electrostatic latent image line formed on said image carrier, said conductor being configured to generate induced current that changes according to a position in a main scanning direction orthogonal to a sub scanning direction in which said image carrier performs rotation, where the electrostatic latent image line is formed;
• a detection unit configured to detect the induced current generated in said conductor;
• and
• a correction unit configured to correct a position shift of an image formed on said image carrier, in the main scanning direction, based on the induced current detected by said detection unit.