An image forming control apparatus for controlling an image forming apparatus to form an image on a recording medium includes a memory to store a target property data of original gradation values of image data of a target image to be formed on the recording medium; and circuitry to acquire actual property data of the target image actually formed on the recording medium, convert the original gradation values to another gradation values, generate a primary correction data based on the original gradation values and the another gradation values, generate a secondary correction data to supplement the generated primary correction data, compare the primary correction data and the secondary correction data, and generate gradation correction data used for correcting the original gradation values existing in a specific range of the original gradation values based on a comparison result of the primary correction data and the secondary correction data.