Patent ID: 7746527

Claim:
An optical scanning device, comprising: a light source array comprising a plurality of light source sections arranged in a two-dimensional pattern for supplying light beams; the two-dimensional pattern having a first direction and a second direction that is different from the first direction; a light source division control section that divides a gradation of each pixel of a plurality of pixels among the plurality of light source sections by allocating an array of spots produced from the light beams of light source sections arranged along one of the first direction or the second direction to each pixel of the plurality of pixels, a scanning section for directing the light beams emitted from the light source sections to scan on a beam-receiving region in a first beam-receiving direction and a second beam-receiving direction that is substantially perpendicular to the first beam-receiving direction, wherein: the scanning section is operated such that a frequency at which the light beams scan in the first beam-receiving direction is higher than a frequency at which the light beams scan in the second beam-receiving direction; and wherein a respective gradation of each pixel of the plurality of pixels is represented by spots produced by the light beams of the light source sections arranged along the one of the first direction or the second direction successively illuminating each pixel of the plurality of pixels.