Patent ID: 8085447

Claim:
An image reading apparatus including a plurality of light sources each of which corresponds to each of a plurality of colors, and a reading sensor which reads a light beam reflected by an original document, comprising: conveying means for conveying the original document; scanning means for scanning the plurality of light sources and the reading sensor, relative to the original document in a scanning direction different from a conveyance direction in which the original document is conveyed by the conveying means; conveyance control means for controlling the conveying means to convey the original document by an amount which is shorter than a reading width in the conveyance direction of the reading sensor after each scanning by the scanning means so that the scanning means scans, more than once, on a region of the original document, wherein the amount corresponds to a width of a predetermined number of pixels, and the region is defined by the amount in the conveyance direction and a width of the original document in the scanning direction; and light source control means for selecting a light source to be turned on among the plurality of light sources, based on a selecting order for each predetermined number of pixels in the scanning direction, and changing the selecting order for each scanning.