Compact document measuring system for electronic document imaging

Abstract

In a document handling system for feeding document sheets of varying dimensions to be imaged at an imaging station through a document feeding path from a document input tray, a system for automatically determining the dimension of the document sheet being fed in its feeding direction before it is imaged, yet also providing a compact document handling system with a short document feeding path, with a sheet buckling system including a sheet buckling chamber between the document input tray and the imaging station, and feeding the trailing portion of the document sheet faster than the leading portion to substantially buckle the intermediate portion out of the document feeding path so that the distance between the trailing and leading ends of the buckled document sheet along the document feeding path is substantially reduced, and so that the trailing end of the buckled document sheet normally passes and actuates a first sheet edge sensor before the sheet reaches a second sheet edge sensor upstream of the imaging station, to provide a timing signal usable for calculating the dimension of the document sheet even for document sheets longer than the document feeding path. The calculated dimension of the document sheet may be used to automatically select a copy sheet size onto which the image of the document sheet is to be printed and/or an imaging speed reduction for increased digital resolution.