Electrophotographic image forming apparatus and method utilizing misregistration prevention pattern

An image forming method in an image forming apparatus which includes an image carrier, a charging unit that charges a surface of the image carrier, exposure units that form latent images of respective color components on the surface of the image carrier, developing units that develop the latent images formed by the exposure units into toner images, and a transfer unit that transfers the toner images onto a transfer medium, and which forms a misregistration prevention pattern by a toner image of a predetermined color component to prevent misregistration of image formation in transfer by the transfer unit, comprising:

• a detection step of detecting a position where a toner image of a color component other than the color component of the misregistration prevention pattern and the toner image of the misregistration prevention pattern overlap each other on the surface of the image carrier;
• and
• a control step of controlling to form the misregistration prevention pattern on the surface of the image carrier except for the overlapping position detected in the detection step, and not to form the misregistration prevention pattern at the overlapping position on the surface of the image carrier,
• wherein the control step further controls to shift, to a position where a toner image in a main scanning direction does not overlap toners of the respective color components, the misregistration prevention pattern at the position where the misregistration prevention pattern overlaps the toners of the respective color components, and form the misregistration prevention pattern.