Image forming apparatus

Image forming apparatus for forming an image using a heat-developable image forming sheet that is normally non-photosensitive but can be rendered photosensitive by preheating prior to exposure and exposed to a light image to form therein a latent image and then heat-developed to produce a visible image, comprising:

• first heating means for preheating one image forming area of the image forming sheet;
• exposure means for projecting an optical image of a subject to the preheated image forming area;
• second heating means for heat-developing the exposed image forming area;
• and
• transfer means for transferring the image forming sheet to the first heating means, the exposure means and the second heating means;
• wherein the first heating means, the exposure means and the second heating means are each provided with fixing means for fixing the image forming area of the image forming sheet at the processing position of each means, and wherein the first heating means, the exposure means and the second heating means are arranged so that individual image forming areas of the image forming sheet can be simultaneously processed by the respective means in parallel.