Patent ID: 7237772

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image former for forming an image on a sheet at a predetermined image-forming speed; a plurality of feeders, each positioned a different sheet-carrying distance from said image former; a carrier for feeding and guiding the sheet fed from each of the plurality of feeders to the image former; a controller for controlling the carrier to suspend feeding of the sheet fed from one of the plurality of feeders at a first position upstream of the image former; and a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the sheet at a second position upstream of the first position, wherein the controller determines whether feeding a subsequent sheet is suspended at a third position between the first position and the second position based on an output signal from the sensor and controls a speed at which the carrier carries the subsequent sheet, based on at least one of which feeder feeds the sheet from among the plurality of feeders or on the image-forming speed of the image former.