IMAGE FORMING METHOD BASED ON THERMAL TRANSFER METHOD

PURPOSE: To reduce wear of a thermal head by a method wherein when an assembly of dye-donor element and image receiving element is heated to form an image, a heating element corresponding to an image pixel for which no density is required during image-wise heating is activated so that an amount of heat is generated according to a specific formula. CONSTITUTION: A dye-donor element, having on a support a dye layer containing a thermally transferable dye, is placed, with the dye layer in face-to-face relationship with an image receiving element to provide an assemblage. And the assemblage is image-wise heated by activating a number of heating elements of a thermal head being in contact with the dye donor element, each of the heating elements corresponding to an image pixel. Thereafter, the dye-donor element is separated from the image receiving element. In this case, during the image- wise heating, heating elements corresponding to an image pixel for which no density is required are activated so that they generate an amount of heat He in accordance with the following formula: 0.5 HD