A hot melt ink which is applicable to an ink jet printing system where the hot melt ink is jetted out to a printing medium to form an image on the printing medium includes a binder which contains a hot melt composition; a coloring material which is dispersed in the binder; and a photo-curing composition. The binder as a dispersion medium is dispersed in the photo-curing composition in the form of grains and a surface of the hot melt ink is covered with the photo-curing composition when the hot melt ink is fixed on the printing medium. An ink jet printing apparatus includes a jetting device which jets the above hot melt ink melted by heat out to a printing medium to draw an image on the printing medium; and a light source for irradiating the hot melt ink on the printing medium which is jetted out from the jetting device to cure the photo-curing composition.