Abstract: An ink ribbon take-up assembly for winding individual narrow ink ribbons produced in a slitting apparatus by slitting a wide ribbon, comprises a mounting shaft with a longitudinal groove, and ribbon cores and separators mounted alternately on the shaft. Each ribbon core has a longitudinally elongated projection on its inner surface, which is complementary to, and in engagement with, the groove in the shaft. The separators can be simple cylindrical tubes. This structure obviates cooperating notches and tabs at ends of the ribbon cores and separators, and makes it possible to achieve miniaturization by minimizing the wall thickness of the ribbon cores.

Abstract: A thermal transfer sheet for transferring a protective layer on an image formed on a receiving body by a thermal transfer method, comprising a substrate and a thermally transferable protective layer provided on the substrate, the protective layer comprising an inorganic stratified compound component and a binder component, the inorganic stratified compound component being contained in an amount of 3 to 150 parts by weight relative to 100 parts by weight of the binder component, wherein the inorganic stratified compound component comprises 2 or more groups of laminas of at least one inorganic stratified compound, the respective groups having different average particle sizes with each other.

Abstract: An intermediate transfer type thermal transfer recording method comprising the steps of: forming first an image on an intermediate transfer medium by heating a melt-type thermal transfer recording medium with a heating head, and transferring the image formed on the intermediate transfer medium onto an image receptor pressed against the intermediate transfer medium, wherein an image of a heat-meltable colored ink is formed on an image receptor by said intermediate transfer type thermal transfer recording method and a transparent heat-meltable ink is then transferred on the image receptor to cover a region thereof including the image of the colored ink by said intermediate transfer type thermal transfer recording method. The method provides a lustrous image on a paper sheet and an image with high light transmittance on an OHP sheet.