Abstract: Light emitted from the entire surface of a light source (1) is passed selectively through a liquid crystal shutter (3) which can be controlled to open/close on a pixel basis in response to image data and then selectively passed light is converted into light having a specified wavelength by a nonlinear optical element (4) before impinging on a metal film (6). The metal film (6) induces and emits its own electrons and forms an electrostatic latent image directly on a dielectric film (8). Consequently, corona discharge for charging the dielectric film (8) need not be used and charging operation can be performed well without causing the problem of environmental pollution due to ozone.