Termal Dye Transfer Printing with Chelate Compounds

Abstract

With its excellent color and tone reproduction, thermal dye transfer printing produces continuous-tone color images that rival silver halide photography. However, conventional thermal dye transfer images fade easily when subjected to light or heat. To solve this problem, we have studied a chelate compound system and have found that certain sets of azo dyes and transition metal cationproviding compounds produce dye-metal complexes, or “chelate compounds”, that provide exceptionally high image stability.