Patent ID: 7851118

Claim:
An image forming method, comprising the steps of: forming an electrostatic latent image on a rotatable organic photoreceptor in a predetermined rotational direction; forming a developing brush with a developing agent containing a toner on a rotatable developing sleeve; and contacting the developing brush on the developing sleeve with the surface of the photoreceptor such that the developing brush has a bent depth (Bsd) in the range of 0.3 to 0.8 mm at a developing region between the photoreceptor and the developing sleeve so as to visualize the electrostatic latent image into a toner image on the photoreceptor; wherein the photoreceptor comprises a conductive support member, an intermediate layer containing a binder resin and inorganic particles and a photosensitive layer includes a charge generating layer provided on the intermediate layer, wherein the intermediate layer has a thickness of 0.3 to 10 μm, the inorganic particles are N-type semiconductive particles and have a number average primary order particle size of 3 to 200 nm, the volume of the inorganic particles is from 1.0 to 2.0 times that of the binder resin, and the charge generating layer contains 20 to 600 weight parts of a charge generating material for 100 weight parts of a binder resin and has a thickness of 0.3 to 2 μm, and wherein the rotating direction of the developing sleeve is counter to that of the photoreceptor at the developing region.