An image forming apparatus includes: a latent image forming unit that forms a latent image on a latent image bearer with light from a light source; and a correction data generating unit that includes: an acquiring unit that acquires, for each position, a correction value of an intensity of the light source to equalize a density distribution of a latent image; a quantizing unit that generates a correction data for each position by quantizing a correction value for each position; and an excessive correction suppressing unit that outputs the correction data after reducing an amount of change from an immediately preceding latent image formation position, with respect to a position at which an absolute value of a restored value indicating a correction amount and generated based on the correction data exceeds an absolute value of the correction value.