Patent ID: 7901861

Claim:
An image forming method comprising: forming an electrostatic image on an image bearing member; developing the electrostatic image with a developer including a toner to form a toner image on the image bearing member; transferring the toner image onto a receiving material optionally via an intermediate transfer medium; fixing the toner image to the receiving material with a fixing member; and applying an oil to the fixing member, wherein the toner includes a binder resin, a colorant, and an amide wax, and satisfies either a relationship (A) or a relationship (B), which relationships are defined as OSP=( A 2 /A 1)×100<200, (A) wherein OSP represents an oil spreading property of the toner, A1 represents an area of the oil dropped on a first pellet of the toner measured 30 seconds after dropping the oil, and A2 represents an area of the dropped oil measured 24 hours after dropping the oil, wherein the OSP is determined by a method including pressing about 2 g of the toner at a pressure of 100 kg/cm 2 to form the first pellet of the toner having a cylindrical form with a diameter of about 40 mm and a thickness of about 2 mm, heating the first pellet for 5 minutes on a hot plate heated to 180° C. under an environmental condition of 23° C. and 55% RH, setting the first pellet on a horizontal plane so that a flat surface of the first pellet faces upward to cool the first pellet under the environmental condition, dropping 9 mg of the oil on the flat surface of the first pellet from a point 1 cm above the flat surface of the first pellet, and measuring the areas A1 and A2 of the oil dropped on the flat surface of the first pellet 30 seconds after dropping the oil and 24 hours after dropping the oil to determine the OSP, and ( X 1 −X 2)<0.5 atomic percent, (B) wherein X1>1.0 atomic percent, and X2>1.0 atomic percent, wherein X1 and X2 represent amounts of Si atoms, from the oil, which are present on and/or in the toner image after fixing the toner image, X1 and X2 being measured by subjecting the toner image fixed on the receiving material to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at times 5 minutes and 24 hours, respectively, after fixing the toner image, wherein the amide wax includes an amount of nitrogen atoms between 0.5 to 3.0 atomic percent of all atoms detected, and wherein determining the amount of nitrogen atoms in the amide wax includes pressing about 30 mg of the toner for 1 minute at a pressure of 100 kg/cm 2 to form a second pellet of the toner having a cylindrical form with a diameter of about 5 mm, heating the second pellet for 5 minutes on a hot plate heated to 180° C. under the environmental condition of 23° C. and 55% RH, cooling the second pellet, and subjecting a flat surface of the second pellet to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to determine the amount of nitrogen atoms in the amide wax in the second pellet of the toner.