Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for transporting a recording medium on which an image is formed, comprising:

• an image bearing member to bear an image;
• a transfer member to transfer the image onto a recording medium;
• a guide plate to guide the recording medium substantially from the image bearing member side to a transfer position between the image bearing member and the transfer member, the guide plate including a flexible sheet member and a rigid holding member to hold the flexible sheet member such that the flexible sheet member projects from a front end of the rigid holding member;
• and
• a sheet feeding device provided substantially at an upstream side in a direction of sheet transport of the guide plate, to feed the recording medium in the direction of sheet transport,
• wherein a projecting portion of the flexible sheet member includes at least two flexible sub-portions having a different bend-stiffness per unit area from each other, the bend-stiffness per unit area is reduced toward a downstream side in a sheet guide direction, the tip of the sheet member is located opposite the image bearing member via a hypothetical sheet transport path that assumes that the recording medium is linearly transported to the guide plate by the sheet feeding device, and a tip of one of the flexible sub-portions closest to the holding member is on the sheet transport path or substantially at an image bearing side of the sheet transport path.