Image forming apparatus

An image H(x, y) for displaying a target image G(x, y) is displayed on a liquid-crystal display panel and illumination light from an illumination light source is made to pass therethrough to form an image on a PALSLM. Read light hv is radiated to the PALSLM and a phase-modulated light image alpha (x, y) read out of the PALSLM is subjected to Fourier transform by a lens. A phase contrast filter gives a predetermined phase shift to only the zero-order light component of Fourier light image alpha f(x, y). The phase-shifted light image is subjected to inverse Fourier transform by a lens to project an output image O(x, y) to an output plane. A light image O'(x, y) branched by a beam sampler is picked up by a pickup device and an evaluation value calculating unit evaluates conformity between the image O(x, y) and the image G(x, y).; A control unit performs feedback control of optical characteristics of the illumination light source, PALSLM, and phase contrast filter, based on the evaluation result.