Patent ID: 8104761

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming apparatus body provided with an image formation unit which forms an image on a paper based on image information; a plurality of paper feeding apparatuses, each of the plurality of paper feeding apparatuses accommodating the paper therein and feeding the paper to the image forming apparatus body, paper conveyance paths of the plurality of paper feeding apparatus being daisy-chained with respect to the image forming apparatus body; an output unit that, using a signal transmission path, outputs an instruction signal which instructs a specified one of the paper feeding apparatuses to start feeding the paper when the image is formed by the image formation unit; paper feed units disposed in the plurality of paper feeding apparatuses and that feed the paper upon receipt of the instruction signal from the output unit; a recognition unit disposed in the image forming apparatus body and that recognizes a delay time of each of the plurality of paper feeding apparatuses the delay time being from after the instruction signal is received until it is determined by analysis that the instruction signal is a paper feed instruction; and a correction unit that corrects an output timing of the instruction signal from the output unit based on the delay time of each of the paper feeding apparatuses recognized by the recognition unit.