DOCUMENT FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transport a document at a transporting speed which is appropriate for more than one kind of image forming apparatuses each operating at different image forming speeds. SOLUTION: By giving an instruction from an apparatus main body 20 to an ADF 10 (automatic document feeder), the number of documents fed per unit time by the ADF can be adjusted to be approximately the same as the number of sheets of image formation per unit time in the apparatus main body 20. Furthermore, a optimal feeding pattern can be determined which attains the number of pages fed per unit time in the ADF 10 based on the instruction of an operation mode from the apparatus main body 20. Thus, a user's request to reduce noise or to reduce consumed power can be satisfied without manually switching the document feeding speed in the ADF each time or providing a plurality of models of the ADFs. COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT