Patent ID: 7441773

Claim:
An image forming system comprising: (a) an image forming section for forming an image on a sheet; (b) a first stacking section for stacking the sheet with the image formed thereon by the image forming section; (c) a second stacking section provided at a position different from the first stacking section for stacking the sheet with the image formed thereon by the image forming section; (d) a common conveyance path for conveying the sheet with the image formed thereon by the image forming section; (e) a first conveyance path for conveying the sheet conveyed along the common conveyance path, to the first stacking section; (f) a second conveyance path longer than the first conveyance path for conveying the sheet conveyed along the common conveyance path, to the second stacking section, wherein an interval between adjoining sheets fed along the common conveyance path is smaller than a difference between the second and first conveyance paths, when images are formed on the sheets continuously one by one by the image forming section; (g) a switching section for switching a conveyance path of the sheet conveyed along the common conveyance path between the first conveyance path and the second conveyance path; and (h) a control device controls such that when the switching section is selected in such a way that an N-th sheet with an image formed thereon is conveyed along the second conveyance path, and an (N+1)th sheet with an image formed thereon is conveyed along the first conveyance path during continuous image formation, the controller controls the (N+1)th sheet so that an arrival timing of the (N+1)th sheet at the first stacking section is delayed without stopping the continuous image formation by the image forming section, and the (N+1)th sheet is thereby stacked on the first stacking section after the N-th sheet has been stacked on the second stacking section, where N represents a natural number.