Abstract: The invention concerns a thermal printing ribbon for an office printer and bearing a sequence of coloring areas (3-7) that serve to print a picture in at least one printing zone onto a printing support sheet of specified format. The formats of the consecutive coloring areas (3-7) that serve to print a printing zone are substantially sub-multiples of the format of the printing support sheet but significantly different one from another.The invention is appropriate for color printing by thermal transfer.