Abstract: An automatic document feeder of the invention has a conveying roller for conveying a document sheet to a document reading position on a platen facing a document image reading portion. The automatic document feeder contains a pickup guide for picking up the fore end of a document sheet scanned at the document reading position and a pressing piece for pressing a document sheet being conveyed against the pickup guide at a curved portion provided by the platen and the pickup guide. The pressing piece is fixed at an upstream side of the document reading position, extending from the fixed position across the document reading position and is made free at a downstream portion. Further, this document feeder is provided with a document sheet deflecting device for deflecting a document sheet toward a paper discharge stacker. The document deflecting device is a plate spring being capable of swaying within a specified range.

Abstract: The invention provides an image reader provided with an automatic document feeder which has a switchback path and can perform a both-faces processing operation, and which makes it possible to simplify the control of a switchback operation and handle a long-sized document sheet without making the diameter of a feed roller large and making the switchback path unnecessarily long. An automatic document feeder of the invention comprises a feed path for feeding a document sheet drawn out from a paper feed stacker to an image reading portion facing a feed roller, a switchback path c for making a document sheet which has been processed at the image reading portion switchback, a pair of switchback rollers which are provided so as to make a document sheet switchback in the switchback path and are able to turn forward and backward, and a paper discharge path for discharging a document sheet being in the switchback path onto a paper discharge stacker.

Abstract: The invention provides an image reader provided with an automatic document feeder which has a switchback path and can perform a both-faces processing operation, and which makes it possible to simplify the control of a switchback operation and handle a long-sized document sheet without making the diameter of a feed roller large and making the switchback path unnecessarily long.

Abstract: The invention aims at providing an automatic document feeder capable of making the whole apparatus small-sized, simplifying its driving system, improving the speed of reading consecutive document sheets when conveying document sheets to the document reading position of an image reader, surely preventing an image read in the image reader from being distorted, and preventing a document sheet from being jammed.