Image forming method and apparatus with automatic skew control

摘要

Disclosed are an image forming method for checking pickup of a sheet on which an image is to be formed before correcting skewing of the sheet, and an image forming apparatus. This method comprises a first step of permitting a pickup roller to pick up a sheet from a sheet retaining unit and causing the leading edge of the sheet to abut against resist rollers; a second step of permitting a detecting mechanism to detect that the sheet has been picked up by the pickup roller; a third step of rotating the pickup roller by a predetermined amount according to the detection of the detecting mechanism; a fourth step of driving the resist rollers to feed the sheet and driving an image forming mechanism for forming an image on the sheet; and a fifth step of permitting the image forming mechanism to form an image on the fed sheet. The apparatus comprises a sheet retaining unit for retaining sheets; a pickup roller for picking up a sheet from the sheet retaining unit; resist rollers against which the leading edge of the sheet abuts; an image forming mechanism for forming an image on a sheet fed by the resist rollers; a detecting mechanism for detecting that the sheet has been picked up by the pickup roller; and a controller for rotating the pickup roller, then rotating the pickup roller by a predetermined amount according to a sheet detection output of the detecting mechanism, then stopping rotating the pickup roller, and then rotating the resist rollers.