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.