The invention provides a method for driving a CCD area image sensor. An interline transfer type CCD area image sensor includes a plurality of photo sensors arranged in a plurality of lines. A plurality of vertical shift registers are disposed along one of the lines of photo sensors. A horizontal shift register is formed to receive charges from the vertical shift registers. An output circuit converts the charges transferred through the horizontal shift resistor into electrical signals. The driving method includes the steps of accumulating charges in the photo sensors, transferring charges accumulated in all of the photo sensors to the vertical shift registers, and shifting the transferred charges to the horizontal shift register via the vertical shift registers. The start of charge-shiftings is initiated from the charges in the order of the distances between the transferred position and the photo sensors and the horizontal shift register. The charges received from the vertical shift registers are shifted through the horizontal shift register to an output circuit where the quality of charges reaching the output is converted into an electrical signal. The CCD area image sensor includes at least one shift register circuit for producing shift pulses which perform the above-mentioned operations.