Patent ID: 7154520

Claim:
A thermal transfer recording method, in which a protective layer provided on a substrate sheet of a transfer sheet is transferred onto an image of a printing material by heat of a heat generation portion of a thermal head arranged on a substrate sheet side, wherein arithmetic mean roughness Ra defined in JIS B 0601 is set to a value not more than 30 nm at an interface on the substrate sheet side of the protective layer, at least a part on an upstream side in a feed direction of the printing material in the heat generation portion of the thermal head is divided into a plurality of separate portions by providing a plurality of slits extending toward the feed direction in parallel in the part, a plurality of individual electrode portions respectively connected to the plurality of separate portions are arranged on the upstream side in the feed direction of the plurality of separate portions, a common electrode portion connected to the heat generation portion is arranged on a downstream side in the feed direction of the heat generation portion, and a pressurizing surface, which is continuously flat across a length corresponding to the plurality of separate portions, is formed on the downstream side in the feed direction of the plurality of separate portions within the heat generation portion and the common electrode portion.