Patent ID: 8643689

Claim:
An image processing method comprising: (a) measuring a distance between a medium where an image is to be recorded and an image processing apparatus which stores a relation between irradiation energy and distance previously measured; (b) calculating an irradiation energy from the distance measured in (a), based on the relation stored in the image processing apparatus and to obtain a line width on the medium same in width as a line width at a focal position; and (c) irradiating and heating the medium at the focal position or near the focal position with laser beams having the irradiation energy calculated in (b), to record an image in the medium, wherein a laser beam emitting unit of the image processing apparatus comprises a laser beam source and is configured to emit laser beams, and the laser beam source is a fiber coupling laser, and wherein the fiber coupling laser has a top hat-form light distribution at the focal position.