Patent ID: 7812975

Claim:
An image printing and reading apparatus comprising: a printing unit to print an image on a print sheet conveyed through a print sheet path; a reading unit to read a document conveyed through a document path, having a common part belonging to said print sheet path and said document path; a reference white board for shading correction used by said reading unit upon execution of prescanning; and a moving unit to move said reading unit to a reading unit document reading position and said reference white board to a reference white board document reading position when said reading unit executes document reading, and to move said reading unit to a reading unit retreat position and said reference white board to a reference white board retreat position in at which the influence of ambient light is reduced at least upon execution of prescanning, wherein the reading unit retreat position is relatively higher than the reading unit document reading position and the reference white board retreat position is relatively higher than the reference white board document reading position.