Patent ID: 8425709

Claim:
A method for image formation comprising: putting a thermal transfer sheet and a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet one upon another in such a manner that a dye layer of the thermal transfer sheet is kept in contact with a receiving layer of the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet, wherein the thermal transfer sheet has a subbing layer and a dye layer in this order on a substrate film, in which the subbing layer contains at least one of colloidal silica and colloidal alumina, and the dye layer contains a polyvinyl acetal resin having an acetacetal group in an amount of from 3.0 to 30.0 molar times the butyral group therein, and a dye of the following formula (1): wherein A represents a substituted or unsubstituted phenylene group, R 1 and R 2 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group, R 3 represents a substituted or unsubstituted amino group, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group, and R 4 represents a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group, wherein the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet has, on a support, at least one heat-insulating layer and at least one receiving layer; and applying heat energy in accordance with an image signal by a heating element from the side of the thermal transfer sheet opposite to the side coated with the dye layer, thereby recording an image on the image-receiving sheet.