COLOR IMAGE FORMING METHOD

PURPOSE:To reproduce a color hard copy of high quality image from a highly concd. information record by arranging at least three kinds of dye donors in mosaic, imagewise exposing a hotosensitive element to a single light trhough this mosaic layer, and diffusion transferring dye released from said dye donors to an image receiving element. CONSTITUTION:A mosaic layer 2 is formed on a substrate 1 by arranging mosaic finely divided different regions each contg. each of at least there kinds of dye donors capable of releasing each of dyes different from each other or their precursors, and a photosensitive element having a silver halide emulsion layer 3 photosensitive to, e.g. a >=600nm wavelength region is exposed imagewise to a single color light through the mosaic layer 2, and brought into contact with an alkaline processing soln. in the presence of a developer to form a distribution of the diffusive dyes or precursors corresponding to the imagewise exposure. A color image is formed on an image receiving element 4 as a result of diffusion transfer of said imagewise distribution. Consequently, high quality color image signals recorded on a highly concnd. information recorder, such as a magentictape, magnetic disc, or optical disc, can be easily reproduced as a high image quality color hard copy.