Patent ID: 7983593

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a cylindrical photoconductor used for image formation in an electrophotographic process; a laser scanning section for exposing a peripheral surface of the photoconductor to a scanning beam so as to form an electrostatic latent image thereon; an image development section for developing the electrostatic latent image by using a toner; a toner storage section for storing the toner to be supplied to the image development section; a vertical transport path configured to pass a printing sheet therethrough while the printing sheet comes into contact with a part of the peripheral surface of the photoconductor; and a transfer section for transferring an image that is visualized by the image development section with use of the toner from the peripheral surface of the photoconductor onto the printing sheet, wherein the image development section is disposed in contact with the peripheral surface upstream of a rotation direction of the photoconductor from the transfer section, the toner storage section is disposed above the image development section while having a predetermined distance from the image development section so as to form a space therebetween for releasing heat, and the laser scanning section emits the scanning beam obliquely upwardly with respect to a horizontal direction toward a position higher than a central axis of the photoconductor so that the emitted scanning beam passes through the space, reaches the peripheral surface, and exposes the peripheral surface.