A printed product including: a yellow image formed on an image receiving sheet including a coloring material receiving layer and a surface protective layer formed on the yellow image, wherein the yellow image and the surface protective layer are formed by sequentially applying heat to a yellow coloring material layer for forming the yellow image and a surface protective layer forming layer for forming a surface protective layer through use of a thermal transfer recording sheet including the yellow coloring material layer and the surface protective layer forming layer field sequentially; the yellow coloring material layer contains a compound having a predetermined structure as a yellow coloring material, and wherein in the printed product having formed thereon the yellow image and the surface protective layer, the compound permeates into the coloring material receiving layer to a depth of 2 μm or more.

A decorative paper layer may include a base paper layer, an inkjet receiver coating and a pattern formed thereon by digitally applying inks from a set of a plurality of differently colored inks. At least one of the inks may include color pigments having an average particle diameter larger than 150. The inkjet receiver coating may include silica pigments, in which the silica particles are particles of precipitated silica and/or silica gel and/or have an average particle size which is at least 4 times larger than the average particle diameter of the color pigments and/or have an average particle size of 1 to 40 micrometer.

A thermal transfer printer includes a first supply unit configured to supply an intermediate transfer medium in which, on one surface of a first base, a transfer layer including a receiving layer is disposed, a second supply unit configured to supply a thermal transfer sheet in which, on one of surfaces of a second base, a colorant layer and a particle layer are disposed, a printing unit configured to heat the thermal transfer sheet, to transfer a colorant from the colorant layer to the receiving layer to form an image, and to transfer the particle layer onto the receiving layer, a third supply unit configured to supply a transfer-receiving body, and a transfer unit configured to place the intermediate transfer medium and the transfer-receiving body on top of each other such that the transfer-receiving body faces the particle layer on the receiving layer, and to heat the intermediate transfer medium.

A thermal transfer image-receiving sheet has a primer layer and a receiving layer. The primer layer contains binder resin and metal pigment. When a value obtained by dividing the mass of the metal pigment by the mass of the binder resin is A and the thickness of the primer layer is B, A is 0.5 to 3.5, and A/B is 0.15 to 6. When light is made incident on the surface on the receiving layer side at an incident angle of 45°, ΔL* between L* at a light-receiving angle obtained by tilting specular reflection light, generated when light is made incident on the surface on the receiving layer side at an incident angle of 45°, toward the incident light side by 15° and L* at a light-receiving angle obtained by tilting the specular reflection light toward the incident light side by 110° is 110 or more.

A multi-color retransfer single stamping system includes at least one thermal print head configured to print a color from a donor ribbon onto a retransfer film to print indicia on the retransfer film, and thermal stamps configured to apply pressure onto the retransfer film to transfer the indicia from the retransfer film to one or more target objects.

Imaging medium includes an image-receiving substrate including a color-forming layer, a donor ribbon attached to the image-receiving substrate and including a color layer, and a repeated pattern. The repeated pattern is defined by a portion of each of the color-forming layer and color layer. A repeat of the pattern includes at least three adjacent colored stripes including a cyan or cyan-forming stripe, a magenta or magenta-forming stripe, and a yellow or yellow-forming stripe. A first of the at least three adjacent stripes is a color-forming stripe in the color-forming layer. A second of the at least three adjacent stripes is a colored stripe in the color layer. A third of the at least three adjacent stripes is either a second color-forming stripe in the color-forming layer or a second colored stripe in the color layer of the donor ribbon.

A thermal transfer image-receiving sheet has a primer layer and a receiving layer. The primer layer contains binder resin and metal pigment. When a value obtained by dividing the mass of the metal pigment by the mass of the binder resin is A and the thickness of the primer layer is B, A is 0.5 to 3.5, and A/B is 0.15 to 6. When light is made incident on the surface on the receiving layer side at an incident angle of 45°, ΔL* between L* at a light-receiving angle obtained by tilting specular reflection light, generated when light is made incident on the surface on the receiving layer side at an incident angle of 45°, toward the incident light side by 15° and L* at a light-receiving angle obtained by tilting the specular reflection light toward the incident light side by 110° is 110 or more.

There is provided a thermal transfer sheet capable of being identified by a thermal transfer printing apparatus, as well as being capable of preventing color property changes in high-resolution printing and reducing production cost. The thermal transfer sheet 5 of an embodiment includes a dye layer 52 and a protective layer 54 on one surface of a substrate 50. The protective layer 54 contains an invisible light absorbing material and is provided with an identification mark 55 having at least one of a recessed portion and a protruding portion.

A thermal transfer sheet is provided, which can be produced with enhanced working efficiency and is identifiable, and a thermal transfer printing device which uses the thermal transfer sheet is also provided. The thermal transfer sheet includes a substrate, and a yellow dye layer, a magenta dye layer and a cyan dye layer disposed on the substrate. An interval between the yellow dye layer and the magenta dye layer is different from an interval between the magenta dye layer and the cyan dye layer. Alternatively, the yellow dye layer and the magenta dye layer overlap partially, and the magenta dye layer and the cyan dye layer overlap partially. The transfer printing device identifies the type of the thermal transfer sheet based on the interval between the dye layers or the widths of the overlaps.

An example of an imaging medium includes an image-receiving substrate, a donor ribbon attached to the image-receiving substrate, and a registration mark. The donor ribbon includes a donor ribbon substrate, a release layer disposed on the donor ribbon substrate, and a color-forming layer disposed on the release layer. The color-forming layer includes a repeated pattern. A repeat of the pattern includes at least three adjacent color-forming stripes including a cyan-forming stripe, a magenta-forming stripe, and a yellow-forming stripe, or a grid of four color-forming sections including i) a color-forming section selected from the group consisting of black-forming, cyan-forming, light cyan-forming, yellow-forming, magenta-forming, and light magenta-forming, ii) a cyan-forming section, iii) a magenta-forming section, and iv) a yellow-forming section. The color-forming layer is in contact with the image-receiving substrate.