Image forming process

Claim 1

A process for forming an image, comprising imagewise exposing a photosensitive material comprising on a support a photosensitive silver halide, a sensitizing dye having general formula (I) and/or (II) as defined below, and a compound which forms or releases a mobile dye in proportion or counterproportion to the reduction of the photosensitive silver halide into silver by heating, and transferring the resulting mobile dye to a dye-fixing element in the presence of a hydrophilic solvent as a dye transfer assistant, said hydrophilic solvent consisting essentially of water, wherein formula (I) is: ##STR31## wherein Z 1 and Z 2 individually represent a group of non-metallic atoms necessary to form a 5- or 6-membered heterocyclic ring, Z 1 and Z 2 may be the same or different, R 1 and R 2 individually represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, R 1 and R 2 may be the same or different, L 1 , L 2 and L 3 individually represent a substituted or unsubstituted methine group, p and q are individually equal to 0 or 1, m is equal to 0, 1, 2, or 3, X 1 .sup.⊖ represents an anion, k is equal to 0 or 1, with the proviso that the number of organic acid groups contained in the molecular except X 1 .sup.⊖ is up to 1, and formula (II) is: ##STR32## wherein Z 3 has the same meaning as Z 1 and Z 2 , R 3 has the same meaning as R 1 and R 2 except an alkyl group having an acid group, L 4 and L 5 have the same meaning as L 1 , L 2 , and L 3 , Z 4 represents a group of non-metallic atoms necessary to form a 5- or 6-membered heterocyclic ring, R 4 represents a hydrogen atom, or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, aryl or heterocyclic group, r has the same meaning as p and q, and n has the same meaning as m, wherein the imagewise exposed photosensitive material is heated to develop the imagewise exposed photosensitive material.