According to one embodiment, a sheet cassette includes a sheet placing portion. The sheet placing portion can rotate around a rotation shaft while placing a sheet of a placeable maximum size in a sheet placing area to be flat. The rotation shaft extends to be perpendicular to a discharge direction and a gravity direction of the sheet. The rotation shaft is disposed between a first end portion on a downstream side along the discharge direction in the sheet placing area and a second end portion on an upstream side positioned on a side opposite to the first end portion.

Examples include: a leveling system for a top feeder of a printer, where the top feeder includes a media positioning arrangement. The leveling system has a detector for detecting reflected light and generating a three-dimensional image comprising media positioning regions corresponding to the media positioning arrangement on a top sheet of a media stack installed into the top feeder. Also, the leveling system has an actuator configured to adjust heights of different points of the bottom of the media stack. Further, it has a controller for selecting, based on the three-dimensional image, adjustments to the heights for improving leveling of at least one of the media positioning regions; and controlling the actuator to implement the adjustments.

The image forming apparatus may include a main body and a cassette to enter or exit the main body along a first direction to be mounted in or released from the main body, respectively. The cassette may include a supporter extendable in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to protrude from an exterior of the main body. The main body may include a lever which is movable in the first direction between a supporting position at which the lever supports the main body and a release position at which to allow the cassette to enter or exit the main body along the first direction.

A sheet supplying apparatus includes a supplying roller, a supply tray, and a lifting/lowering member having a protrusion. The pressure plate includes a pressure plate body and a contact member supported by the pressure plate body so as to be movable between a first position and a second position. The contact member is pushed up and lowered with the pressure plate body while being in contact with the protrusion at the first position in a state in which the protrusion is placed below the pressure plate body. The contact member moves to the second position at which the contact member is escaped from the lifting/lowering member when the protrusion moves from a position higher than the pressure plate toward a position lower than the pressure plate. The contact member moves to the first position when the lifting/lowering member moves to the position lower than the pressure plate.

A medium conveying apparatus includes a main body, a placement board that is movably supported by the main body, an extension member that is movably supported by the placement board, a lever that is movably supported by the placement board, and a mechanism that moves the extension member to a contraction position when the lever is located at a protrusion position, and moves the extension member to an expansion position when the lever is located at a pushed position, wherein the lever is away from an abutting portion fixed to the main body when the placement board is located between a storage position and a midway position, and the lever comes into contact with the abutting portion and moves toward the pushed position when the placement board is located between a unfolding position and the midway position and when the placement board moves toward the unfolding position.

An image forming apparatus, including: an apparatus main body; an openable and closable member provided on the apparatus main body; an image reading portion configured to read an image of an original, the image reading portion being supported on the apparatus main body and being movable to a first position and to a second position; and a stopper member configured to move in conjunction with a movement of the image reading portion, wherein when the image reading portion is moved to the first position, the stopper member is moved to a restricting position for restricting the openable and closable member from moving from a closed position to an open position, and wherein when the image reading portion is moved to the second position, the stopper member is moved to an allowing position for allowing the openable and closable member to move from the closed position to the open position.

A document transport device includes a placement portion, a slide member, a movable piece, and a detector. A document is to be placed on the placement portion. The slide member includes a document guide that contacts one lateral side of the document which is placed on the placement portion. The movable piece is provided to the slide member, and includes a shading pattern composed of plural patches that have plural densities corresponding to plural document sizes and having plural adjacent patch density differences that are different from each other. The detector detects a density of the shading pattern, and outputs an output signal for document size recognition.

An automatic document feeder includes a media path to route media through the automatic document feeder, and automated media trays to supply the media to the media path and receive the media from the media path, with the automated media trays to be positioned based on a presence of a user at the automatic document feeder.

Examples of alignment fins for output trays of media dispensing devices are disclosed. In an example, an alignment fin is coupled to a support surface of an output tray of a media dispensing device. The alignment fin is to transition between a first position wherein the alignment fin is disposed below the support surface, and a second position wherein the alignment fin is exposed through an aperture in the support surface. When the alignment fin is in the second position, the alignment fin is to align the media dispensed from the dispensing device into a stack on the support surface.

It is an object of the present invention to provide method for receiving sheets for a sheet supplying apparatus. The method includes converting an up and down motion of a tray to a rotational motion of a rotary member by a movement conversion mechanism, converting the rotational motion of the rotary member around a rotational axis to a linear motion of a cylindrical member parallel to the rotational axis by the rotary member and a cam and slider mechanism, and elastically pressing an end portion of the cylindrical member of the cam and slider mechanism in the rotational axis direction to lift the tray by a compression spring.