In dye diffusion thermal transfer printing, there has been two major issues on image preservation. One has been the deterioration of image quality resulting from the bleeding and migration of transferred dyes, and the other has been the poor light stability of the dyes.To counteract these issues, we have developed a new concept with new azo dyes having certain moieties and transition metal ion providing compounds. The moieties make dyes possible to react with metal ions to form metal-dye complexes. The complexes have high molecular weight to lower the transferability greatly. It makes the images stronger against bleeding, heat-migration, smearing by finger printing, and so on. The transition metal makes dyes stronger against light-induced decomposition. As a resut, the images are resistive to post-printing thermal diffusion and, in addition, possess good light stability.