Patent ID: 7126737

Claim:
An optical scanning apparatus comprising: a light source that emits a light beam; a coupling optical system that receives the light beam from the light source and converts the light beam into a specific form; a line-image forming optical system that receives the light beam from the coupling optical system and forms a line image elongated in a main scanning direction; a polygon mirror that rotates, wherein the polygon mirror receives the light beam from the line-image forming optical system and deflects the light beam, the polygon mirror including a deflective reflection surface near an image-forming position at which the line image is formed; and a scanning optical system that receives the light beam from the polygon mirror and converges the light beam as a light beam spot onto a target surface to be scanned, and optically scans the target surface with the light beam spot, wherein at least one of the optical systems closer to the light source than the polygon mirror is configured so as to correct a change in an image-forming position of the light beam spot caused by deformation of the deflective reflection surface originating from the rotation of the polygon mirror.