An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier carrying a latent image, a charging device uniformly charging a surface of the image carrier, an exposure device performing, in accordance with image data, an exposure operation on the charged image carrier surface to write the latent image, a development device supplying toner to the latent image to develop a visible image, a transfer device transferring the visible image to an intermediate transfer member or a recording medium, a lubricant application device applying lubricant to the image carrier surface, a cleaning device cleaning the image carrier surface after a transfer operation, a fixing device fixing the transferred image on the recording medium, and a control device controlling, in accordance with recent print information, the operation in a lubricant application mode in which the lubricant application device applies the lubricant to the image carrier surface.