Image transfer sheet and image forming method using the image transfer sheet

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image transfer street which is used for wet-type image transfer methods and which can form a transferred image having good image quality on a variety of receiving materials without making wrinkles.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a wet-type image transfer method which can form a transferred image having good image quality on a variety of receiving materials without making wrinkles.
Briefly these objects and other objects of the present invention as hereinafter will become more readily apparent can be attained by an image transfer sheet useful for wet-type image transfer methods in which a release layer including a water-soluble resin as a main component, and an image bearing layer including a resin is overlaid on a water-permeable supporter in this order, wherein an image, which is formed on the image bearing layer, is transferred onto a receiving material after releasing the image bearing layer having the image from the water-permeable supporter in water, and wherein a ratio L2/L1 is not less than 0.
99, where L1 represents a length of one side of the image bearing layer when measured before the image transfer sheet is dipped into water, and L2 represents a length of the side of the image bearing layer when measured by setting the image bearing layer on a wet acrylic plate after the image transfer sheet is dipped into water and the image bearing layer is released from the water-permeable supporter.
In the image transfer sheet mentioned above, an adhesive layer and an image supporting layer are optionally formed between the release layer and the image bearing layer.
In this case, a combination layer of the image bearing layer having an image with the image supporting layer and/or the adhesive layer is adhered to a receiving material after being released from the substrate in water.
The resin included in the image bearing layer preferably has a transition temperature not lower than 30