Patent ID: 6942956

Claim:
A process of forming a protection layer with an improved level of gloss on top of a thermal dye transfer image in a thermal print comprising: (a) imagewise-heating a dye-donor clement comprising a support having thereon a dye layer comprising an image dye in a binder, said dye-donor element being in contact with a dye-receiving element, thereby transferring a dye image to said dye-receiving element at a line time of 0.4 to 2 milliseconds to form said dye transfer image; and (b) thermally transferring a protection layer on top of said transferred dye image at a line time of 0.4 to 2 milliseconds; said protection layer comprising an effective amount of at least gloss-enhancing compound that consists of an organic molecule that is essentially colorless, does not scatter light, is substantially not absorbing of light at a wavelength from 400 to 800 nm, and has a maximum absorption at a wavelength less than 400 nm.