Patent ID: 8520263

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a recording section that records image information and additional information directly onto a recording surface of a photographic printing medium, the recording surface including a first area and a second area, the recording section (i) recording no image information on the first area of the recording surface and (ii) recording the image information on the second area of the recording surface, and the photographic printing medium containing a fluorescent brightener in at least the first area of the recording surface, wherein, the recording section is configured such that the recording section (i) laminates a visually transparent laminate ink that contains an ultraviolet light absorber over the second area of the recording surface that has the image information recorded thereon so that the visually transparent laminate ink is laminated over the recorded image information and (ii) uses the visually transparent laminate ink to record the additional information by partially applying the visually transparent laminate ink according to the additional information onto the first area of the recording surface that has no image information recorded thereon and that contains the fluorescent brightener, and the additional information includes a two-dimensional code representing a URL of a website, the two-dimensional code being readable by a mobile phone.