Image forming apparatus having heating and cooling units

An image forming apparatus which forms an image on a recording medium by using liquid toner on the basis of an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier in accordance with a supplied image signal, comprising:

• determination means for determining whether the supplied image signal is an image signal that makes a liquid toner film have a thickness not more than a predetermined value;
• image processing means for outputting a processed image signal containing a control signal for applying transparent resin liquid toner onto the image carrier when the determination means determines that the supplied image signal is an image signal that makes the liquid toner film have a thickness not more than the predetermined value;
• electrostatic latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier by irradiating the image carrier with a light from exposure means on the basis of the processed image signal output from the image processing means;
• applying means for applying the transparent resin liquid toner onto the image carrier in accordance with the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier by the electrostatic latent image forming means;
• developing means for developing the image on the image carrier, onto which the transparent resin liquid toner is applied by the applying means, by using the liquid toner in accordance with the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier by the electrostatic latent image forming means;
• and
• transfer means for transferring the image on the image carrier, developed by the developing means, onto the recording medium.