Patent ID: 7119823

Claim:
A retransfer printing method comprising steps of: overlapping an ink ribbon in a belt shape having both layers of a transfer ink layer containing transfer-ink and a peel functional layer thereon, on an intermediate transfer film in a belt shape having a transfer layer thereon so as to face the transfer ink layer toward the transfer layer; moving the ink ribbon and the intermediate transfer film together to a longitudinal direction while pressing a thermal head against the back side of the ink ribbon overlapped on the intermediate transfer film; transferring the transfer-ink to the transfer layer by heating the thermal head corresponding to an image to be printed so as to form the image composed of the transfer-ink on the transfer layer; adhering a part of the transfer layer corresponding to a peeling area previously designated within an area of the image to the peel functional layer by heating the thermal head corresponding to the peeling area over a predetermined temperature; peeling off the part of the transfer layer adhered to the peel functional layer from the intermediate transfer film; and re-transferring the transfer layer to the printing medium by the thermal transfer method, and resulting in printing the image on the printing medium, the retransfer printing method is further characterized in that an amount of energy, which is supplied to the thermal head so as to heat the thermal head, is changed in accordance with a location of the thermal head in the peeling area and its neighboring area during the step of peeling.