1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a continuous recording medium by transferring to the continuous recording medium a toner image obtained by developing a latent image formed on a photoreceptor; and a controller that controls the image forming unit such that an image based on image information is formed in a specific image area on the continuous recording medium, and at the same time, a specific image pattern is formed in a specific side area outside the image area on the continuous recording medium.