A gloss control apparatus and a gloss control method for achieving even glossiness of an image recording surface of a heat-sensitive recording medium on which an image has been recorded and for controlling the glossiness as desired. In addition, process time and thermal energy required for achieving even glossiness are reduced. A CPU determines thermal energy corresponding to a desired glossiness based on gloss characteristic information about thermal energy and glossiness of the recording medium stored in the internal memory. The CPU controls a thermal head through a head controller so that the determined thermal energy is evenly applied to all over the image recording surface of the medium on which the image has been recorded. Evenness of glossiness of the medium after image recording is thus achieved so that the glossiness the user desires is obtained.