Patent ID: 7597439

Claim:
A method of inkjet printing a color image on an inkjet recording element comprising: (a) providing an inkjet printer that is responsive to digital data signals; (b) loading the printer with a fusible inkjet recording element having a support and thereon a porous ink-fluid-receiving layer and a porous upper fusible layer, wherein the porous ink-fluid-receiving layer is an adjacent and underlying layer relative to the porous upper fusible layer, and wherein each layer is characterized by a median pore size, the median pore size of the porous upper fusible layer being greater than the median pore size of the underlying layer; (c) loading the printer with at least one inkjet pigment-based ink composition characterized by a mean pigment particle size of pigment colorant particles in the pigment-based ink; (d) printing on the fusible inkjet recording element using the ink composition in response to the digital data signals; and (e) fusing the printed element to obtain a fused upper layer, wherein the median pore sizes of the porous upper fusible layer and the underlying layer and the mean pigment particle size of the pigment colorant particles, in combination, are such that, after the ink composition is applied to the recording element, the median pore size of the porous upper fusible layer is sufficiently large and the median pore size of the underlying layer is sufficiently small that, in the printed image, the pigment colorant particles can be concentrated in the lower half relative to the upper half of the of the thickness of the fused upper layer and substantially excluded from the underlying layer, as determinable by printing a area of uniform density on the recording element with said pigment-based ink to an optical density between 1.0 and 2.5 and then fusing the printed element, resulting in greater than 50% of the pigment colorant particles in the pigment-based ink composition being retained in the bottom half of the fused upper layer, as determined by optical micro-densitometry on a cross-section of the test area of the printed and fused recording element.