Image forming apparatus with a control unit for controlling light intensity of a beam used to scan a photoreceptor

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a light source that emits a beam;
• a photoreceptor that is scanned with the beam to obtain an electrostatic latent image thereon;
• and
• a control unit that determines a light intensity of the beam to be emitted for formation of a pixel, based on a data value for the pixel in image data and data values for its surrounding pixels;
• wherein when a maximum light intensity of the beam emitted from the light source is a first light intensity, a light intensity of the beam emitted from the light source for formation of a pixel in a white solid image is a second light intensity, and a light intensity of the beam emitted from the light source for formation of a pixel in a black solid image is a third light intensity, the control unit controls the light source such that when an image includes a white pixel and a non-white pixel next to each other, the light source emits the beam with a light intensity lower than the second light intensity for formation of the white pixel, and such that when an image includes a black pixel and a non-black pixel next to each other, the light source emits the beam with a light intensity higher than the third light intensity and equal to or lower than the first light intensity for formation of the black pixel.