PURPOSE: To obtain the contact type reader with which wasteless illumination and exact image reading can be performed by a method wherein the reader is constructed in such a manner that the light projection path from a luminous source passes through a photoelectric conversion section.

CONSTITUTION: The incident light (a) projected from luminous sources passes through the center window 4 of the photoelectric conversion section 5' and radiated on a manuscript 1, and the reflected light (b) is detected by the photoelectric conversion section 5' located around the window. One side of the window 4 is to be 10∼60μm when one side of the conversion section 5' is approximately 100μm. Accordingly, the incident angle to the manuscript can be made very small, the distance between the manuscript and the photoelectric conversion section can be reduced to 50μm or less, and the thickness of the device can be made to 2∼50μm or thereabout even when the thickness of a transparent electrode 9 is added. As a result, the atenuation in luminous intensity can be suppressed by reducing the length of the optical path, and the deterioration of the reading signal intensity is lessened by having a reduced scattering on the manuscript surface. Also, the mirror reflection other than the manuscript is reduced, and noise is also reduced, thereby enabling to obtain a distinct detection.