Patent ID: 8416471

Claim:
A document illuminating system comprising: a plurality of light emitting elements; a reflective element which guides light emitted from the plurality of light emitting elements to a document read area of a certain width and length, wherein: an emission direction of the plurality of light emitting elements coincides with a width direction of the document read area, the emission direction being a direction of light with a highest intensity among light from the light emitting elements; the reflective element comprises a first reflective portion, a second reflective portion, and a third reflective portion; the first reflective portion includes two or more continuous planar reflective faces, and is disposed so that one end of the first reflective portion is closer to the document read area than that of the second reflective portion in a sub scan direction; the second reflective portion includes one or more planar reflective faces and is disposed so that the reflective faces reflect light from the light emitting elements to one or both of the first and third reflective portions without other reflective elements; and the first and third reflective portions each include one or more planar reflective faces and are disposed so that their reflective faces oppositely illuminate the document read area together by reflecting light from one or both of the light emitting elements and the second reflective portion to the document read area without other reflective elements.