1. A method of thermally printing a desired image on a receiver comprising the steps of: (a) thermally printing a first sub-image on a first region of the receiver with a first dye-donor patch of a first color having a length that is less than than a length of the receiver; (b) thermally printing a second sub-image on a second region of the receiver with a second dye-donor patch of the first color and having a length that is less than the length of the receiver; the first and second regions of the receiver having a partial overlap region; the first and second sub-images form the desired image (or a single color printed record of the desired image) which is longer in length than either of the first and second dye-donor patches; wherein in steps (a) and (b) the thermal printing is made with the same printhead having a plurality of thermally actuated recording elements, the recording elements being actuated to print the first sub-image and the second sub-image each with pixels of varying gray levels, and further wherein pixels in the overlap region are printed with varying gray levels during both of steps (a) and (b) and wherein at pixels locations in the overlap region most printed pixels are printed by overlapping a partial pixel printed during printing step (a) with another partial pixel printed during printing step (b).