There is provided an information code in which first cells have lightness that is intermediate between lightness of second cells and lightness of a predetermined marginal area. The first cells and the second cells are configured to have a difference in lightness therebetween sufficiently smaller than a difference in lightness between the first cells and the predetermined marginal area, in a predetermined area occupying at least a part of the code area. There is also provided an information code reader in which colors of an image of the information code captured by an imaging unit are corrected such that the difference in lightness between the first and second cells increases. Using the corrected image, decoding processing is performed to decode the information code.