The printing method of the dye sublimation printer is to push and heat a dye-based ribbon by a thermal print head, and diffuse the ink dyes to desired positions into the receiving layer of a paper. In a previous work, a real contact area between the ink dyes and the paper was necessary to increase the optical density. The ink dyes were effectively heated at the real contact area, to diffuse the ink dyes into the receiving layer. Thus it is important to place the heater of the thermal print head at a position where the contact pressure is most high. The contact pressure distribution acting on the thermal print head was calculated by FEM. The friction force on the thermal print head shifted the contact region to the paper feeding direction. On the other hand, the viscoelastic property of the platen rubber shifted the contact region in the opposite paper feeding direction. The friction force on the thermal print head influenced the contact pressure distribution than the viscoelastic property of the platen rubber. Then, it didn't need to consider the viscoelastic property of the platen rubber to calculate the contact pressure distribution. To examine the effect of the contact pressure on the print quality, the optical densities were measured with the heater positions on the thermal print head changed. It was found that the optical densities increased along with the increasing contact pressure.