Patent ID: 7715748

Claim:
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier body on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a developing roller which faces the image carrier body and supplies toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier body; and an anti-toner-dispersion element which faces an outer circumferential surface of the image carrier body between an exposing section where the electrostatic latent image is formed and a developing section where the electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing roller, and wherein a collection bias is applied to the anti-toner-dispersion element to collect dispersed toner from the developing roller; wherein the collection bias is applied such that straight polarity toner dispersed from the developing roller is collected on the image carrier body and reverse polarity toner dispersed from the developing roller is collected on the anti-toner-dispersion element.