An image forming apparatus includes a level selecting unit, an image quality adjusting unit, and an image forming unit. The level selecting unit selects one of a plurality of levels each distributed to one of a plurality of adjustment items affecting an image quality determining factor that determines image quality. The plurality of adjustment items are different from each other. The image quality adjusting unit adjusts a value of each of the adjustment items belonging to the level selected by the level selecting unit and any other level shallower than the selected level such that the image quality corresponding to the image quality determining factor approaches predetermined image quality. The image forming unit forms an image having image quality according to the value adjusted by the image quality adjusting unit.