According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a conveying roller to convey sheets of different types along a conveyance path, a first sensor to detect a sheet being conveyed at a first position, a second sensor to detect the sheet being conveyed at a second position that is at a fixed distance downstream of the first position, a registration roller pair that is downstream of the second sensor, and a control unit. The control unit calculates a transit time for the sheet between the first position and the second position according detection results from the first and second sensors, and then sets a conveying distance for the sheet after the second position to be used for aligning the sheet against the registration roller pair based on the calculated transit time of the sheet.

A medium transportation device includes a supply roller configured to send a medium downstream, at least one stopper configured to be switched between a blocking state in which the at least one stopper blocks the transportation path and an open state in which the at least one stopper opens the transportation path, and a controller configured to perform skew correction control in which a leading edge of the medium is brought in contact with the at least one stopper in the blocking state to correct skew of the medium. The controller is configured to obtain information about a stiffness of the medium and, when a second medium having a lower stiffness than a first medium is transported, the controller switches the at least one stopper from the blocking state to the open state to end the skew correction control earlier than the skew correction control of the first medium.

A method of controlling an image processing apparatus. the method includes accepting a predetermined instruction regarding a predetermined image that is being displayed on the image processing apparatus, changing, in a case when the predetermined instruction is accepted, so that a predetermined mark added to the predetermined image does not overlap with a non-printing area corresponding to an area where printing is not to be performed, a location of the predetermined image based on the predetermined mark, and executing a process of printing the predetermined image and the predetermined mark in the printing area corresponding to an area where printing is to be performed on a recording medium.

A verification apparatus includes a reading unit configured to read an image of a conveyed sheet. The apparatus obtains a reference image for verification of a sheet, and extracts, from the reference image, feature points to be used for alignment of an image with the reference image. The apparatus aligns, with the reference image, a read image obtained by reading an image of a verification target sheet by the reading unit, and verifies the read image by comparing the aligned read image with the reference image. Based on a number of the feature points extracted from the reference image the alignment is performed using positions of the feature points or using positions of sheet vertices each indicating a corner of the sheet.

Provided is an image forming apparatus, in which a recording material is conveyed by a reverse portion rotated in a first direction at a first velocity which is faster than a conveyance velocity of the recording material in a fixing portion after a rear end portion of the recording material passes through the fixing portion, and then, the recording material is conveyed to a conveying portion by the reverse portion rotated in a second direction opposite to the first direction through a conveyance path at a second velocity which is faster than the conveyance velocity of the recording material in the fixing portion, and a conveyance velocity of the recording material is set to a third velocity which is slower than the second velocity at a predetermined timing before the rear end portion of the recording material reaches a curved portion of the conveyance path.

A sheet conveying apparatus includes a sheet conveyance section, a roller pair unit, first and second guides, and a movable guide including an upstream portion extending upstream in the sheet conveying direction with respect to the nip portion and a downstream portion extending downstream in the sheet conveying direction with respect to the nip portion. The roller pair unit nips the sheet, warps the sheet in a case where a leading end of the sheet conveyed by the sheet conveyance section comes into contact with the roller pair unit, and conveys the sheet. The first guide opposes a first side of the sheet and guides the sheet. The second guide opposes a second side of the sheet. The movable guide opposes the first side of the sheet and moves in such a manner that the downstream portion of the movable guide moves closer to or away from the second guide.

Method and systems of automated document processing described herein include activating in sequence a plurality of illumination modules of an illumination source to illuminate a document, where the plurality of illumination modules are located at different positions relative to the document. The document can be imaged each time the document is illuminated by an illumination module to provide a plurality of images. A shadow profile of the document can be obtained based on the plurality of images. One or more of a boundary of the document and presence of a fastener attached to the document can be identified using the shadow profile. Any fasteners present may be removed using a robot arm.

An image processing apparatus (10) includes: a restriction processing portion (54) that, in a case where a difference between a separation distance between a pair of regulating portions (15) and a reference distance exceeds a threshold value, restricts execution of a reading process that reads image data of a document sheet place on a document sheet placing portion (11); a determination processing portion (52) that, in a case where an output process that outputs the image data read by the reading process is executed, determines whether or not the output process is a specific fax transmission process that establishes a communication connection for fax communication before execution of the reading process; and a prohibition processing portion (56) that, in a case where it is determined that the output process is the specific fax transmission process, prohibits restriction on the execution of the reading process.

A sheet alignment apparatus includes a sheet leading-end aligning device, a sheet side-end aligning device. The sheet leading-end aligning device is configured to align a leading end of a sheet bundle in a sheet conveyance direction. The sheet side-end aligning device is configured to align a side end of the sheet bundle in the sheet conveyance direction and move the sheet bundle to a predetermined position. The sheet leading-end aligning device is configured to maintain contact with the leading end of the sheet bundle when the sheet leading-end aligning device retracts from a movement path of the sheet side-end aligning device along which the sheet side-end aligning device moves the sheet bundle to the predetermined position.

A method of operating a printer separates the image data content of a sheet in a print job into multiple color separations. The first color separation printed on the sheet includes at least two fiducials printed in the least perceptible color of ink in the printer. The at least two fiducials are used to identify the process direction and skew of the printed sheet before the remaining color separations are printed on the sheet with the first color separation.