Description

Thermal dye transfer printing method for obtaining high density black images comprising the steps of (1) imagewise heating a first area of a dye-donor element or an entire first dye-donor element comprising a support having thereon a dye layer containing a dye or a mixture of dyes thereby transferring a first dye image to a dye-receiving element comprising a support having thereon a dye image-receiving layer and (2) subsequently imagewise heating a second area of said dye-donor element or an entire second dye-donor element thereby transferring in register with the first second dye image to said dye-receiving element and (3) subsequently imagewise heating a third area of said dye-donor element of an entire dye-donor element thereby transferring in register with the first and second dye image a third dye image to said dye-receiving element wherein the superposition of the first transferred dye image, the second transferred dye image and the third transferred dye image yield a black dye image, characterized in that the concentration of those essential composing dyes having a higher retransfer degree than the other essential composing dyes is higher in an area or dye-donor element to be printed in a later pass than in an area or dye-donor element to be printed in an earlier pass and that at least one of the dye areas or dye-donor elements contains a mixture of dyes wherein at least two dyes have a difference in maximum absorption of at least 50 nm.