Image forming apparatus including driving means disposed downstream of nip

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an image carrier whose surface is movable in a preselected direction while carrying a toner image thereon. A movable body has a surface movable in the same direction as the image carrier in contact with the image carrier, thereby forming a nip. A drive member exerts a force that pulls a portion of the movable body contacting the image carrier out of the nip. An image transfer unit transfers the toner image from the image carrier to the movable body at the nip. A controller controllably drives the image carrier and movable body such that the movable body starts moving after the image carrier. The apparatus not only reduces the image forming time, but also frees images from disfigurement ascribable to the slack of the movable body.