Patent ID: 7646519

Claim:
An optical scanner that can scan a light flux from a light source to a photosensitive surface of each of a plurality of photoconductors in a main-scanning direction, comprising: a plurality of the light sources that are allocated in positions different from one another in a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main-scanning direction, the plurality of light sources each of which capable of blinking independently; a pre-deflection optical system that shapes the light flux from the light source so that the light flux has a predetermined cross-sectional shape; and a rotational reflector that scans the light flux shaped in the pre-deflection optical system in the main-scanning direction by reflecting and deflecting the light flux by a plurality of reflecting surfaces arranged thereon corresponding to each of the plurality of photoconductors in a rotational direction, and an inclination angle of each of the plurality of reflecting surfaces with respect to a rotational axis of the rotational reflector is set to an angle depending on the photoconductor to which each of the reflecting surfaces corresponds.