Patent ID: 7798491

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a conveying device configured to convey a sheet along a main sheet path, the sheet conveying device including a pair of conveyance rollers that can be separated; a skew correcting device configured to correct the skew of the sheet by rotating the sheet which is conveyed along the main sheet path by the conveying device; a deflection forming device arranged between the sheet conveying device and the skew correcting device and operable to project into the main sheet path to make a path for deflecting the sheet, wherein the skew of the sheet is corrected by the skew correcting device while the deflection of the sheet is formed by the deflection forming device; an image forming unit configured to form an image on the sheet having the skew corrected by the skew correcting device; and a control device configured to control the sheet conveying apparatus, wherein the skew correcting device corrects the skew of a sheet whose stiffness is less than a predetermined value, the deflection forming device is projected into the main sheet path, but the deflection forming device is not projected into the main sheet path and the pair of conveyance rollers are separated at the time the skew correcting device corrects the skew of the sheet when the stiffness of the sheet is equal to or greater than the predetermined value.