IMAGE READER AND IMAGE FORMING DEVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To check a lamp on an optimum condition corresponding to a reading operation by separating lamp checking from a shading operation (reference white plate reading). SOLUTION: In a lamp checking operation, the lamp 261 is turned on at a position A where a scanner carriage 263 is stopped, whether the light quantity of the lamp is appropriate is decided by a white peak value detected by reading a small white plate 265, a started reading operation is interrupted in the case of lamp abnormality, and the purport that the lamp is abnormal is notified. Since the lamp checking is separated from a reference white plate reading operation, timing can be determined arbitrarily, and the optimum condition is given to a continuous reading operation of an original without correction processing by a reference white plate at an automatic document feeder(ADF) (reading position A). Reading is conducted in the middle of moving to a position B in a reference white plate reading mode, and a return is made to the position A in the case of ADF. In the case of a reading system movement method, an original placed on a platen 134 being farther than the position B is read.