Patent ID: 7899376

Claim:
A developing device comprising: a rotatable toner bearing roller that has regularly-arranged projecting sections and non-projecting sections, that bears toner whose volume average particle diameter is smaller than a depth of the non-projecting section relative to the projecting section, and that develops a latent image borne on an image bearing member with the toner borne on the toner bearing roller; and a regulation blade that is for regulating an amount of the toner borne on the toner bearing roller and that abuts, with a predetermined width, against a circumferential surface of the toner bearing roller in a circumferential direction thereof in such a manner that a longitudinal direction of the regulation blade is along a direction of a rotation axis of the toner bearing roller, a tip edge of the regulation blade in a lateral direction and a thickness direction thereof being located within an abutting section having the predetermined width, the predetermined width being larger than a maximum width, in the circumferential direction, of the non-projecting section.