An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit having image forming elements and a fixing unit. The image forming elements includes an image carrier, a charging unit, a developer carrier, and a developer supplier. The image forming apparatus further includes a post unoperated period image formation preparation processor operable to, when the unoperated period, which is a time period from an end of an image forming operation to a start of a subsequent image forming operation is equal to or greater than a threshold, perform an idling operation to rotate the image carrier while applying a post unoperated period image formation preparation voltage, which is different from a normal image formation voltage, to a given one or more of the image forming elements.