An image forming apparatus includes a direct-transfer control unit that causes a direct-transfer medium and a first image forming unit that forms a single-color image to transfer the single-color image onto either the direct-transfer medium or a transfer sheet; an indirect-transfer control unit that causes an intermediate transfer medium and a second image forming unit that forms a multi-color image to transfer the multi-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium; a secondary-transfer control unit that transfers the single-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium; a sensor that detects an image on the intermediate transfer medium; and a positional-alignment control unit that calculates, using the sensor, an amount of misalignment of the image and corrects, using a position of an image formed by the first image forming unit as a reference position, positions of images to be formed by the second image forming unit based on the calculated amount of misalignment.