Patent ID: 8823763

Claim:
Printing apparatus comprising a light-emitting device array in which plural light-emitting devices are arranged and a photoconductor which moves in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the light-emitting devices are arranged, in which light emitted by the light-emitting devices exposes the photoconductor to form a print image on the photoconductor, wherein the light-emitting device array includes the light-emitting devices of a number greater than a number of pixels of a single line of the print image, data of the single line of the print image are allocated to a portion of the light-emitting devices in the light-emitting device array and turn-off signals are allocated to remaining light-emitting devices in the light-emitting device array, and in a period in which exposure of the photoconductor is halted after a predetermined time is elapsed or after a predetermined amount of printing is exceeded, the light-emitting devices to which the data of the single line of the print image are allocated are shifted in position in the light-emitting device array in a predetermined sequence or by a random number of pixels.