Patent ID: 7341249

Claim:
A sheet holding apparatus, comprising: a feeding mechanism to feed a sheet having an image formed thereon by an image forming apparatus, from a predetermined feeding position; a plurality of trays to contain the sheet fed from the feeding position; a driving mechanism to move the plurality of trays up and down; a receiving section to receive a tray information indicating a tray which has been at a feeding position in a prior operation; and an initialization control section to perfonn initialization operation by making a determination about necessity or unnecessity of initialization on the basis of the tray information received by the receiving section and by controlling the driving mechanism so that a predetermined tray is sittiated at the feeding position according to a result of the determination, wherein the initialization operation includes a first initialization operation to move the predetermined tray by a first distance and a second initialization operation to move the predetermined tray by a second distance which is shorter than the first distance; and the initialization control section performs the first initialization operation when the tray information is an unspecified information which cannot specify a tray.