Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a laser unit that has a function to emit a laser light to heat a thermal rewritable recording medium to write drawings on the thermal rewritable recording medium and to erase drawings written on the thermal rewritable recording medium by heating the thermal rewritable recording medium;
• an erasing data generating unit that generates erasing data indicative of a position of an erasing area corresponding to a part of the thermal rewritable recording medium;
• a barcode reader;
• and
• a written data receiving unit,
• wherein the laser unit erases a drawing written on the erasing area of the thermal rewritable recording medium based on the erasing data generated by the erasing data generating unit,
• wherein the erasing data generating unit identifies the position of the erasing area based on written data corresponding to a drawing currently written on the thermal rewritable recording medium and generates the erasing data based on the erasing area and the position identified, and
• wherein the drawing currently written on the thermal rewritable recording medium includes a barcode indicating an ID data for specifying the written data, and
• wherein the barcode reader reads the barcode to obtain the ID data and the written data receiving unit receives the written data based on the ID data.

A method of image forming comprising:

• emitting a laser light to heat a thermal rewritable recording medium to write a drawing on the thermal rewritable recording medium and to erase a drawing written on an erasing area corresponding to a part on the thermal rewritable recording medium by heating the thermal rewritable recording medium, a drawing currently written on the thermal rewritable recording medium including a barcode indicating an ID data for specifying written data;
• generating erasing data indicative of a position of the erasing area,
• wherein generating erasing data includes
• reading the barcode by a barcode reader to obtain the ID data, and
• receiving the written data based on the ID data,
• identifying the position of the erasing area based on the written data, and
• generating the erasing data based on the erasing area and the position identified, and
• wherein emitting the laser light includes erasing the drawing written on the erasing area of the thermal rewritable recording medium based on the erasing data that is generated.