Thermal transfer printing

Abstract

A retransfer intermediate sheet for receiving an image to be printed onto an article by thermal retrasfer comprises a substrate which is preferably heat-deformable; and an image-receiving coating on one side of the substrate, comprising an image-receiving layer for receiving an image by printing, preferably inkjet printing, of dye-containing ink, the image-receiving layer comprising amorphous porous silica, a first, non-dye absorbing polymeric binder and a second, flexible polymeric binder. The sheet is particularly useful for printing on three dimensional articles, e.g. being heated and vacuum formed to conform to an article. The invention also coven a method of printing and an article bearing a printed image.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.