A method for discriminating the kind of a recording medium comprises
generating image information composed by plural pixels corresponding to a
specific area on the surface of a recording medium as image information
indicating the surface condition of the recording medium, obtaining a
first parameter regarding the surface roughness of the recording medium,
from the image information, obtaining a second parameter regarding the
surface configuration of the recording medium, and discriminating the
kind of the recording medium in accordance with the first parameter and
the second parameter. With the structure thus affanged, the method
obtains the characteristics of the surface of the recording medium from
an image on the surface of the recording medium, and discriminates the
kind of recording medium reliably in high precision.