Multicolor image forming method and apparatus

Claim 2

A multicolor image forming method comprising the steps of: forming a multicolor toner image on an image retainer by a plurality of developing means; and transferring said multicolor toner image to a transfer material, wherein the improvement comprises: forming a reference toner image on a non-transfer portion of said image retainer by any of said developing means; said reference toner image being a pattern having a predetermined recording area percentage. reading out the reflective density of said reference toner image; and setting image forming conditions in accordance with the reflective density read out.

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein said image forming conditions are those for making image data.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein said image forming conditions are those for forming latent images.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1 wherein said image forming conditions are those for developing.

Claim 6

The method of claim 16 wherein said image forming conditions are those for making image data.

Claim 7

The method of claim 16 wherein said image forming latent images.

Claim 8

The method of claim 16 wherein said image forming conditions are those for developing.

Claim 9

A multicolor image forming method comprising the steps of: forming a multicolor toner image on an image retainer by a plurality of developing means; and transferring said multicolor toner image to a transfer material. wherein the improvement comprises the steps of: forming a reference toner image on a non-transfer portion of said image retainer by any of said developing means; reading out the reflective density of said reference toner image; and setting image forming conditions in accordance with the reflective density read out, a corresponding table of a recording area percentage for forming the reference toner image and said reflective density corresponding to said setting image forming conditions, an area percentage corresponding to a density value of each color to be recorded is determined based on said corresponding table, and the area percentage thus determined is used as image data for forming a latent image of each color.

Claim 10

A multicolor image forming method comprising the steps of: forming a multicolor toner image on an image retainer by a plurality of developing means; and transferring said multicolor toner image to a transfer material. wherein the improvement comprises the steps of: forming a reference toner image on a non-transfer portion of said image retainer by any of said developing means; reading out the reflective density of said reference toner image; and setting image forming conditions in accordance with the reflective density read out, a corresponding table of a recording area percentage for forming the reference toner image and said reflective density corresponding to said setting image forming conditions, an area percentage corresponding to a density value of each color to be recorded is determined based on said corresponding table, and the area percentage thus determined is used as image data for forming a latent image of each color.

Claim 11

The method of claim 8 wherein said image forming conditions are those for making image data.

Claim 12

The method of claim 8 wherein said image forming conditions are those for forming latent images.

Claim 13

The method of claim 8 wherein said image forming conditions are those for developing.

Claim 14

A multicolor image forming apparatus for forming a multicolor image on an image retainer having means for transferring said multicolor image to a transfer material, said apparatus comprising means for forming a plurality of reference toner images having different recording area percentages on non-transfer portions of said image retainer; means for reading out the reflective densities of said reference toner images; and means for setting image forming conditions in accordance with said reflective densities.

Claim 15

A multicolor image forming apparatus for forming a multicolor image on an image retainer having means for transferring said multicolor image to a transfer material, said apparatus comprising means for forming a plurality of reference toner images having different recording area percentages on non-transfer portions of said image retainer; means for reading out the reflective densities of said reference toner images; and means for setting image forming conditions in accordance with said reflective densities.

Claim 16

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image forming conditions are those for making image data.

Claim 17

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image forming conditions are those for forming latent images.

Claim 18

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image forming conditions are developing conditions.

Claim 19

A multicolor image forming method comprising the steps of: forming by a spot light a plurality of latent images having different dot numbers per unit area; forming reference toner images by developing said latent images with toner; reading out the reflective densities of said reference toner images; and setting image forming conditions in accordance with the reflective densities read out.

Claim 20

A multicolor image forming method comprising the steps of: forming by a spot light a plurality of latent images having different dot numbers per unit area; forming reference toner images by developing said latent images with toner; reading out the reflective densities of said reference toner images; and setting image forming conditions in accordance with the reflective densities read out.