Patent ID: 8237996

Claim:
An image reading apparatus comprising: an original placing unit on which an original is to be placed, and the original placing unit transmitting light applied onto an original surface of the original and light reflected by the original surface; a lighting unit that has a plurality of light-emitting elements arrayed in a line and that lights the original surface of the original placed on the original placing unit; an image signal generating unit that receives the light reflected by the original surface lit by the lighting unit and that generates an image signal; a detecting unit that detects a position of the original surface and detects a distance between the original surface and a reference plane set in advance; and a lighting-unit setting unit that sets, by using a result of the detection by the detecting unit, the lighting unit at an angular position so that the image signal generating unit does not receive light emitted from an optical axis of the light-emitting elements and then reflected by the original surface, and the lighting-unit setting unit changes the setting of the angular position of the lighting unit according to the distance detected by the detecting unit.