Patent ID: 7936367

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: at least one image carrier on which an image is formed; and an optical scanning device that scans a scan area on the image carrier with a light flux containing image information and writes the image information onto an image area in the scan area, and that includes a light source that emits a light flux; a reflecting optical unit that has an aperture through a substantial center of which a first light flux of the light flux having the highest light intensity passes, and that reflects a second light flux of the light flux incident on a periphery of the aperture; a first light receiving unit that receives the second light flux reflected by the reflecting optical unit; a deflecting unit that deflects the first light flux having passed through the aperture; a scanning optical unit that converges the first light flux deflected by the deflecting unit on the image carrier; a second light receiving unit that receives a part of the first light flux deflected by the deflecting unit and heading for outside the image area within the scan area; and a control unit that controls a drive signal of the light source to control the output level of the light source by comparing a signal output from the first light receiving unit and a signal output from the second light receiving unit.