Image reader and image forming apparatus determining direction of document to be read

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image reader comprising:
• a document reading section reading a document;
• a character detection section detecting, based on image data of the document obtained through the reading by the document reading section, characters included in an image formed on the document;
• a character concentration detection section detecting concentration of the characters detected by the character detection section;
• a character direction detection section detecting a direction of the characters detected by the character detection section, the character direction detection section targeting the characters whose concentration detected by the character concentration detection section is in a preset specified concentration range to perform the character direction detection;
• and
• a document direction determination section determining, based on the direction of the characters detected by the character direction detection section, a direction of the image formed on the document as a document direction, wherein
• the character direction detection section, based on the concentration of the characters detected by the character concentration detection section, determines whether the image on the document is a monochromatic image or a color image, and upon determination that the image on the document is a monochromatic image, the character direction detection section sets the specified concentration range as a concentration range higher than predefined first concentration that indicates a range of concentration to be used for a character printing using a font, and detects a direction of the characters detected by the character detection section only for the characters whose character concentration is in the specified concentration range;
• and
• an image formation section forming an image on a recording medium.