Patent ID: 7031641

Claim:
An image-forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a rotating charging member for charging the image carrier, the charging member being in contact with the image carrier and rotating such that the periphery of the charging member and the periphery of the image carrier move in opposite directions in a contact region between the image carrier and the charging member; and potential changing means for changing the potential of the image carrier before the image carrier is charged by the charging member, the potential changing means changing the potential of the image carrier such that a potential difference between a first region on the image carrier and the charging member is lower than a potential difference between a second region on the image carrier and the charging member, the first region being in an upstream side of a predetermined position of the image carrier in the moving direction of the image carrier and the second region being in an downstream side of the predetermined position, the predetermined position being in an upstream side region of a position apart from the front end of a region to be a non-image-forming region on the image carrier by a distance corresponding to one turn of the charging member in the moving direction of the image carrier.