Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a cylindrical photoconductor used for image formation in an electrophotographic process;
• a laser scanning section for exposing a peripheral surface of the photoconductor to a scanning beam so as to form an electrostatic latent image thereon;
• an image development section for developing the electrostatic latent image by using a toner;
• a toner storage section for storing the toner to be supplied to the image development section;
• a vertical transport path configured to pass a printing sheet therethrough while the printing sheet comes into contact with a part of the peripheral surface of the photoconductor;
• and
• a transfer section for transferring an image that is visualized by the image development section with use of the toner from the peripheral surface of the photoconductor onto the printing sheet,
• wherein the image development section is disposed in contact with the peripheral surface upstream of a rotation direction of the photoconductor from the transfer section,
• the toner storage section is disposed above the image development section while having a predetermined distance from the image development section so as to form a space therebetween for releasing heat, and
• the laser scanning section emits the scanning beam obliquely upwardly with respect to a horizontal direction so that the emitted scanning beam passes through the space, reaches the peripheral surface, and exposes the peripheral surface.