Patent ID: 7083891

Claim:
A multicolor image forming material comprising an image receiving sheet containing an image receiving layer and thermal transfer sheets of different colors of 4 or more kinds of at least yellow, magenta, cyan and black, each containing a support and at least a photothermal converting layer and an image forming layer, wherein the image forming layer of each of the thermal transfer sheets and the image receiving layer of the image receiving sheet are superposed opposite to each other, and upon irradiation with a laser beam, a laser beam irradiated region of the image forming layer is transferred onto the image receiving layer of the image receiving sheet to undergo multicolor image recording, wherein: a) a ratio of an optical density COD) to a film thickness (μm) (OD/film thickness) of the image forming layer of each of the thermal transfer sheets is 1.50 or more, b) a recording area of a multicolor image of each of the thermal transfer sheets is of a size of 515 mm×728 mm or more, c) a resolution of the transferred image onto the image receiving layer of the image receiving sheet is 2,400 dpi or more, d) a rate of heat shrinkage in a machine direction (M) and a rate of heat shrinkage in a transverse direction (T) of the image receiving sheet are both not more than 1%, and e) the rate of heat shrinkage in a transverse direction (T) of the image receiving sheet is smaller than the rate of heat shrinkage in a machine direction (M) thereof.