Patent ID: 7046955

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image scanning section located at an upper part of a housing of the apparatus for scanning an original to obtain image information therefrom; a sheet feeding section located at a lower part of the housing for feeding sheets used for image forming; an image forming section disposed between the image scanning section and the sheet feeding section at one side of the housing; and a shifter mechanism incorporating sheet output rollers which are used as offset rollers for offsetting printed sheets along a direction perpendicular to a sheet transport direction to selectively discharge the printed sheets to different sheet delivery positions on the sheet delivery portion, wherein the image scanning section, the image forming section and the sheet feeding section are arranged generally in a U shape in cross section in the housing, the sheet delivery portion being formed in an inner empty space of the housing just between the image scanning section and the sheet feeding section, and wherein one side and the front of the inner empty space are contiguously open to the exterior of the apparatus, without any structure obstructing the front or the one side of the inner empty space, allowing a user to grasp and remove the discharged printed sheets from either the front or the one side of the apparatus, and wherein the length (L 1 ) of the sheet delivery portion as measured along the sheet transport direction is made smaller than the length (L 2 ) of a maximum printable sheet size, and wherein the sheet output rollers are disposed between the image forming section and the inner empty space.