An image forming apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store pattern information and a generation unit configured to generate a drive signal for driving an exposure unit. The pattern information indicates a plurality of exposure patterns for a first pixel, the plurality of exposure patterns are selected such that whether exposure patterns that are identical to each other among the plurality of exposure patterns are adjacent to each other, or two exposure patterns that are different from each other among the plurality of exposure patterns are adjacent to each other in the main scanning direction, the non-exposure regions are not consecutively present between the two exposure patterns, and in a case where the plurality of exposure patterns are consecutively used in the main scanning direction, the generation unit randomly selects an exposure pattern to be used.