Patent US 10,122,892

In one embodiment, an image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording medium using a plurality of decolorable coloring materials having different decoloring conditions. Further, the image forming apparatus forms a mark relating to authority information indicating authority capable of decoloring one of the plurality of decolorable coloring materials for each of the decolorable coloring materials on the recording medium. Further, in another embodiment, a decoloring apparatus grasps the authority information, and decolors the image of the decolorable coloring material, in accordance with the grasped authority information.