Image forming apparatus

An image recording apparatus comprising:

• a light emitting dot row provided on a base plate, said light emitting dot row comprising anodes arranged on the base plate in a form of an array of a single row or a plurality of rows and phosphors provided on the anodes;
• a cathode, provided apart from the light emitting dot row, for emitting electrons that collide on the phosphors to thereby cause the phosphors to emit light;
• a grid that covers at least a part of the base plate in a vicinity of the light emitting dot row;
• an image focusing optical system having a focal depth of at least 350 .mu.m for focusing light emitted from the light emitting dot row on an image recording position;
• wherein the image focusing optical system comprises a lens array having a number of lenses that is greater than a number of dots of the light emitting dot row;
• a driving element for driving the light emitting dot row so that the light emitting dot row emits light;
• and
• a conveyance device which conveys one of the light emitting dot row and an image recording medium so that the image recording medium moves relatively to the light emitting dot row.