Image forming apparatus and image forming method

摘要

According to an embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a plurality of recording medium housing portions in which recording mediums to be reused are discriminated and housed respectively for degradation regions that are erased image regions; an obtaining unit to obtain image data;;a printing region discriminating unit to discriminate a printing region at the time of printing from the obtained image data to the recording medium; a selecting unit to select the recording medium housing portion in which the recording medium not including the degradation region corresponding to the printing region discriminated by the printing region discriminating unit is housed from a plurality of the recording medium housing portions; and a printing portion to print the image data obtained in the obtaining unit on the recording medium fed from the recording medium housing portion which is selected by the selecting unit.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image reading portion to read out an image recorded on the recording medium; an erasing portion, disposed at a downstream side of the image reading portion in a recording medium conveying direction, to erase the image recorded on a recording medium using an erasable recording material; a degradation region discriminating unit to discriminate the image to be erased as degradation regions where a pigment of the erasable recording material is decolorized and the erasable recording material remains in the recording medium, based on the read out image; a plurality of recording medium housing portions, disposed at a downstream side of the erasing portion in the recording medium conveying direction, to house recording mediums from which the image has been erased respectively for the degradation regions; an obtaining unit to obtain image data; a printing region discriminating unit to discriminate a printing region at the time of printing from the obtained image data to the recording medium; a selecting unit to select the recording medium housing portion in which the recording medium not including the degradation region corresponding to the printing region discriminated by the printing region discriminating unit is housed from a plurality of the recording medium housing portions; and a printing portion to print the image data obtained in the obtaining unit on the recording medium fed from the recording medium housing portion which is selected by the selecting unit.