There is described an image forming apparatus, which makes it possible to suppress quality degradation of an image on the basis of a developing electric current profile without optically detecting density of a patch image. The image forming apparatus includes: a developing current detecting sensor to detect a developing current; and a control section that conducts consecutive operations of: creating a detecting-use image pattern for detecting a developing characteristic, by aligning a plurality of image patterns, which are different from each other in density; forming a latent image of the detecting-use image pattern onto the photoreceptor element; finding a developing electric current profile, which represents a transition of the developing electric current flowing during an operation of developing the detecting-use image pattern, from an outputted signal of the developing current; and changing an image forming condition, based on the developing electric current profile found by the finding operation.