An image forming apparatus includes a belt, an image forming section, a displacement operation section and a displacement control section. The image forming section includes a color image forming unit and a monochrome image forming unit. The displacement operation section conducts a press-contact operation and a release operation. The press-contact operation brings into contact the image carrier and the belt. The release operation separates the image carrier from the belt. The displacement control section controls the displacement operation section to perform the press-contact operation when the cumulative number of color images is greater than the cumulative number of monochrome images after the image forming section forms a series of images. The displacement control section controls the displacement operation section to perform the release operation when the cumulative number of color images is less than the cumulative number of monochrome images after the image forming section forms a series of images.