Patent ID: 7749667

Claim:
An image forming method comprising: a charging step of charging a photosensitive member for holding thereon an electrostatic latent image; an exposure step of forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member by image wise exposure; a developing step of developing the electrostatic latent image with a toner a developing device has, to form a toner image; and a transfer step of transferring to a transfer material the toner image formed on the surface of the photosensitive member; wherein the toner has toner particles containing at least a binder resin and a colorant, and inorganic fine powder; the photosensitive member has on its surface a plurality of depressed portions which are independent of one another, and an average minor-axis diameter Lpc derived from minor-axis diameters of respective openings of all the depressed portions on the surface, satisfying the following expression (1): Dg<Lpc<Dt (1) where Dt represents a weight-average particle diameter of the toner, and Dg represents a maximum number-average particle diameter among number-average particle diameters of one or two or more types of inorganic fine powder; and the toner has an average circularity of 0.925 or more and 0.995 or less.