Patent ID: 8681390

Claim:
An optical scanner comprising: an LED (Light Emitting Diode) array in which a plurality of LEDs are arranged; an image correcting unit, including a memory to store image data, and configured to perform an image correction on the image data; an emission control unit, including an input buffer to receive the image data subjected to the image correction and an output buffer to output image data to cause light emission from the LED array, and configured to control the light emission of the LED array; and a buffer control unit configured to monitor vacant regions of the memory of the image correcting unit and the input buffer of the emission control unit, and transfer the image data from the memory of the image correcting unit to the input buffer of the emission control unit, wherein, when the emission control unit varies a period at which the image data is output from the output buffer in order to correct a sub scan magnification of the LED array and a vacant region of the input buffer ceases to exist, the buffer control unit temporarily stores the image data in a vacant region of the memory of the image correcting unit, and transfers the image data temporarily stored in the memory to the input buffer when the vacant region is generated in the input buffer.