Azomethine dye precursor, image-forming material, and image-forming method

An image-forming material comprising a support having thereon an image-forming layer containing at least one deblocking agent and at least one azomethine dye precursor represented by the following general formula (1):

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• wherein Ar represents an aryl group or a heterocyclic group which may each have a substituent;
• X represents a bivalent group linking a carbon atom and a nitrogen atom;
• and Cp represent a coupler residue which may or may not form a ring.

An image-forming method comprising the steps of:

• (a) forming an image-forming material by disposing an image-forming layer on a support, with the image-forming layer containing at least one deblocking agent and at least one azomethine dye precursor represented by the following general formula (1):
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• wherein Ar represents an aryl group or a heterocyclic group which may each have a substituent;
• X represents a bivalent group linking a carbon atom and a nitrogen atom;
• and Cp represent a coupler residue which may or may not form a ring;
• (b) producing a visible image by heating and/or pressing the image-forming material.