The hard copy has a transparent coat layer which is formed on an image recording surface of a recording medium on a side of which an image is recorded and covers at least a part of the image recording surface. The transparent coat layer has asperities corresponding to three-dimensional information of the image, materials of objects forming the image, or density variation in the surface area of the image. The size, shape, spacing, height or other features of the asperities can be varied. The hard copy creation method records the image on the recording medium on the side of the image recording surface and then forms on the image recording surface the transparent coat layer having the asperities. The hard copy is created by first printing the image, and then forming on the image a transparent coat layer with the asperities.