An image information decoding method for decoding compressed image information in an image decoding apparatus, which has been coded via a process including dividing an input image signal into blocks, performing an orthogonal transform on the blocks on a block-by-block basis, and quantizing resultant orthogonal transform coefficients. The decoding process includes performing, in a dequantization unit in the image decoding apparatus, dequantization such that a quantization parameter is weighted by an addition operation that adds the weight by addition, and the dequantization is performed on each chroma and luma component of the quantized coefficients using quantization step sizes, said luma component being weighted by the quantization parameter; and performing, in a transform unit in the image decoding apparatus, an inverse orthogonal transform.