Patent ID: 7957039

Claim:
An original-document illumination apparatus comprising: an illuminated face on which an original-document is placed; a light-source unit which includes a plurality of light-emitting elements, arranged in the main-scanning direction of the original-document, is configured to illuminate the original-document, and capable of moving in the sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main-scanning direction; and a lens array which is disposed between the illuminated face and the light-source unit and has a plurality of convergent lenses, wherein a luminous flux from each of the light-emitting elements of the light-source unit is radiated onto the illuminated face through the corresponding one of the lenses of the lens array, wherein each of the plurality of convergent lenses includes a light-incoming plane in which the luminous flux from each of the light-emitting elements is introduced and a light-outgoing plane emitting light from which the introduced luminous flux is emitted, wherein the light-incoming plane of each lens of the lens array is formed so as to have a flat cross-section shape taken along the main-scanning direction, and a curved cross-sectional shape taken along the sub-scanning direction with a predetermined curvature, and the light-outgoing plane of each lens is formed so as to have a cross-sectional shape of the lens taken along the main-scanning direction with a different curvature from the curvature in a cross-sectional shape taken along the sub-scanning direction of the lens.