IMAGE DENSITY CONTROL METHOD

摘要

PURPOSE:To eliminate the influence of surface staining by using the density of an image carrier obtained when a developing device is not driven as one of control reference signals. CONSTITUTION:Image forming conditions are controlled by detecting the amount of toner stuck to a toner pattern image obtained by forming a latent image corresponding to a reference density pattern onto the image carrier 12 and developing this latent image with toner. The density of the image carrier 12 obtained when the developing device 4 is not driven is used as one of the control reference signals. It is preferable that the surface densities of the image carrier 12 at the time of the stopping driving of the developing device 4 are detected and the image forming conditions are controlled by their ratio or difference. Thus, the influence of surface staining can be eliminated.