Patent ID: 8292291

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium; a first transportation route that forms a transportation route for the recording medium received from the image forming unit, the transportation route extending to an outside of the image forming apparatus, and that has a transportation route length for the recording medium longer than a maximum length in a transportation direction of the recording medium usable in the image forming unit, the transportation route length being from a position of an image formation functional unit arranged at a most downstream portion of the image forming unit in the transportation direction of the recording medium to a position where the recording medium is outputted to the outside of the image forming apparatus; a recording medium transportation unit; a detector that detects when a part of the recording medium is output from the first transportation route; and a controller configured to control the recording medium transportation unit to stop transportation of the recording medium after the detector detects that a part of the recording medium is output from the first transportation route, so that a remaining part of the recording medium is held in the first transportation route, the recording medium being output to the outside of the image forming apparatus in accordance with a pull out operation by a user for the recording medium after transportation has been stopped, wherein the recording medium transportation unit interrupts the transportation of the recording medium before the part of the recording medium is outputted from the first transportation route, and restarts the transportation of the recording medium after interrupting the transportation of the recording medium, and then transports the recording medium until the part of the recording medium is outputted from the first transportation route.