OPTICAL WRITING DEVICE, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND METHOD AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR CONTROLLING OPTICAL WRITING DEVICE

摘要

An optical writing device is provided with a pixel information acquiring unit that acquires multilevel pixel information in which one pixel is expressed in multilevel scales, a line pixel information storing unit that stores the multilevel pixel information for each main scanning line, a light emission control unit that optically exposes the photosensitive element by controlling the binary light source on the basis of the multilevel pixel information. The photosensitive element is exposed to the binary light source with a period corresponding to N-fold in a sub scanning direction resolution of the multilevel pixel information, wherein N is a positive integer, so that the N times exposures corresponds to an exposure for one pixel in the original resolution. The switch on/off statuses of the binary light source are controlled in the N times exposures for each pixel, on the basis of lighting rate information for converting the multilevel scales into a lighting rate in the N times exposures.