A color image forming apparatus includes a color-shift-detection-image forming unit, a color shift detector, a recording-material color-shift correcting unit and a conveyance-unit color-shift correcting unit. The color-shift-detection-image forming unit selectively forms a color-shift detection image on a recording medium or a first conveyance unit. The color shift detector detects color shift based on the color-shift detection image. The recording-material color-shift correcting unit performs color-shift correction based on the color-shift detection information corresponding to the color shift on the recording medium. The conveyance-unit color-shift correcting unit performs color-shift correction based on an amount of change in the color-shift detection information corresponding to the color shift on the first conveyance unit. The amount of change is determined using the color-shift detection information corresponding to the color shift on the first conveyance unit, which is obtained after the recording-medium color-shift correcting unit performs the color-shift correction, as a reference.