A spectral characteristic obtaining apparatus including a light irradiation unit configured to emit light onto a reading object; a spectroscopic unit configured to separate at least a part of diffused reflected light from the light emitted onto the reading object by the light irradiation unit into a spectrum; and a light receiving unit configured to receive the diffused reflected light separated into the spectrum by the spectroscopic unit and to obtain a spectral characteristic. The light receiving unit is configured to be a spectroscopic sensor array including plural spectroscopic sensors arranged in a direction, and the spectroscopic sensors include a predetermined number of pixels arranged in the direction to receive lights with different spectral characteristics from each other.