A thermal transfer image recording method is disclosed. The method comprises steps of (1) contacting the surface of an ink layer of an ink sheet which comprises a support having thereon the ink layer comprising a thermal diffusible dye precursor to the surface of an image receiving layer of an image receiving sheet which comprises a support having thereon the image receiving layer containing a dye fixing agent capable of reacting with the dye precursor to form a dye, (2) imagewise heating the ink sheet contacting with the image receiving sheet by a heating means, (3) separating the ink sheet from the image receiving sheet, (4) contacting the surface of the image receiving layer to a resin coated surface of a protecting sheet, (5) heating the image receiving sheet through the protecting sheet with a heating means, and (6) separating the image receiving sheet and the protecting sheet, in which an optical density of an area of the image recorded on the image receiving layer RD and an optical density of an image formed on the protecting sheet SD satisfy the following equation, 0.5%≦IDT≦8% provided IDT=SD/(RD+SD)×100.