Patent ID: 8002261

Claim:
A method of feeding a recording medium to an image forming apparatus by a feeding device that includes a plurality of blowing units each having a fan configured to blow air, the plurality of blowing units configured to blow air to stacks of recording media and a plurality of trays configured to contain the stacks of recording media, the method comprising: starting, in parallel with a first blowing operation for a first tray as a current feeding tray used in a feeding operation, a second blowing operation for a second tray that is used after the first tray in the feeding operation switching the current feeding tray from the first tray to the second tray when a time elapses after the start of the second blowing operation for the second tray; feeding the recording medium from the second tray after switching the current feeding tray; determining whether the number of trays for which blowing operations are being performed is equal to or larger than a predetermined number when the blowing operations are performed for a number of trays including the first tray before starting the second blowing operation for the second tray; and controlling the blowing operations based on a result of the determination.