In a light beam scanning recording apparatus, a recording material is scanned with a laser beam having been produced by a single-longitudinal-mode semiconductor laser and having been directly modulated in accordance with an image signal, and a continuous tone image is thereby recorded on the recording material. A device superimposes a radio-frequency current upon a drive current for the semiconductor laser. An amplitude of the radio-frequency current is set at a value, which causes the semiconductor laser to oscillate in a multiple longitudinal mode, when the drive current for the semiconductor laser falls within a range such that an optical output power yielding a recorded optical density of not higher than approximately 2.0 may be obtained. Nonuniformity in image density is thereby prevented from occurring in the recorded image, and the cost of the apparatus is prevented from becoming markedly high due to countermeasures for nonuniformity in image density.