Images or other information is recorded by a thermal recording apparatus on a thermosensitive recording medium which has a support coated with a coloring agent, a color developer, and light-absorbing dyes, and produces color whose density depends on thermal energy that is applied to the thermosensitive recording medium. The thermal recording apparatus has a plurality of laser beam generators for generating respective laser beams, and an optical scanning system for scanning the thermosensitive recording medium with the laser beams at respective different positions thereon. One of the laser beam generators produces a laser beam to scan the thermosensitive recording medium earlier than the laser beams generated by the other laser beam generators, and the laser beam has a thermal energy which is high enough to enable the thermosensitive recording medium to produce the color. The laser beam generators apply the respective laser beams at different incident angles to the optical scanning system.