An image forming apparatus which includes an image carrier holding toner images of plural colors, and a transfer portion that transfers the toner images of plural of colors held on the image carrier onto a recording medium, wherein the image carrier is made of an elastic material, has a pattern image forming unit repeatedly forming a pattern image for color misregistration detection on the image carrier at a constant interval so as to set the pattern images within a length range of the recording medium, wherein one of the pattern images includes a first toner image group in which plural toner images of a first color is formed at a first interval, and a second toner image group in which plural toner images of a second color is formed at a second interval.