Thermal transfer recording material

Abstract

There is provided a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet which has dyeability high enough to realize high-speed printing and low-energy printing, permits a protective layer to be thermally transferred onto an image formed on the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet, is free from heat fusing to a thermal transfer sheet at the time of image formation on the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet, and has satisfactory separability from the thermal transfer sheet. The thermal transfer image-receiving sheet comprises: a substrate sheet; and a receptive layer provided on at least one side of the substrate sheet, said receptive layer comprising at least a combination of a cellulose ester resin (A) having a degree of acetylation of 10 to 30% with a cellulose ester resin (B) having a degree of acetylation of less than 6%, the total degree of acetylation of the cellulose ester resin (A) and the cellulose ester resin (B) being 8 to 14%, the content of hydroxyl groups in the cellulose ester resin (A) and the content of hydroxyl groups in the cellulose ester resin (B) each being not more than 6% by weight, the remaining hydroxyl groups having been esterified with an organic acid excluding acetic acid. By virtue of the above construction, the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet can realize printing of an image thereon with high dyeability at a high speed, has excellent separability from a thermal transfer sheet, is free from smudge and blurring derived from plasticizers, and permits a protective layer to be adhered onto the receptive layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.