Sheet feeder

A sheet feeder for feeding sheets of a recording medium to a recording apparatus, comprising:

• a hopper, on which the sheets of recording medium are stacked;
• a sheet feeding roller, which is brought into contact with an uppermost sheet stacked on the hopper, and rotates to feed the uppermost sheet to the recording apparatus;
• a separation pad, which presses the uppermost sheet against the feeding roller so that the upper most sheet is separated from a next uppermost sheet;
• a first sheet returner, which pushes back a first part of the next uppermost sheet situated on the separation pad to the hopper;
• and
• a second sheet returner, which pushes back a second part of the next uppermost sheet situated on the separation pad to the hopper,
• wherein the sheet feeding roller, the separation pad and the first sheet returner are incorporated in a single unit which is disposed at a first position of a sheet feeding passage formed on the hopper, and the second sheet returner is solely disposed at a second position of the sheet feeding passage.