An image forming apparatus includes a recording head and a driving waveform generator. The recording head has a nozzle, a liquid chamber, and a pressure generator. The driving waveform generator is connected to the pressure generator to generate and output a driving waveform including a plurality of driving pulses per driving cycle to eject a droplet from the nozzle. A last one of the driving pulses includes a first expansion waveform element, a first retaining waveform element, a first contraction waveform element, a second retaining waveform element, a second contraction waveform element, a third retaining waveform element, and a second expansion waveform element. The first contraction waveform element has a potential difference greater than a potential difference of the first expansion waveform element. The second contraction waveform element has a time period longer than a time period of the first contraction waveform element.