To appropriately idle-discharge ink without degrading productivity.

A disclosed image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to discharge a droplet for forming an image on a recording medium or for idle-discharging the droplet which does not contribute to the image formation; a carrying unit configured to carry the recording medium and include an idle discharge region which can be idle-discharged; a determining part configured to determine whether the recording medium is positioned at the idle discharge region; and a changing part configured to change, if the determining part determines that the recording medium is positioned at the idle discharge region, a direction of the recording medium so that the recording medium is not positioned at the idle discharge region and to place the recording medium on the carrying unit.