Patent ID: 7796934

Claim:
An image forming method comprising: charging a surface of an image carrier that has a surface layer containing a resin having a crosslinking structure, the image carrier being rotatable in one direction; forming an electrostatic latent image by exposing the charged surface of the image carrier to light; developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer containing a toner to form a toner image; electrostatically transferring the toner image formed on the surface of the image carrier onto a surface of a rotatable intermediate transfer member that contacts the surface of the image carrier; and cleaning the surface of the image carrier with a cleaning blade that contacts the surface of the image carrier after the toner image is transferred onto the intermediate transfer member, a portion of the cleaning blade that contacts the surface of the image carrier having a material that satisfies Formulas (1) to (3) below, an absolute value of a difference in circumferential velocity between the image carrier and the intermediate transfer member being substantially larger than zero, and a polishing agent being present at least at a portion where the image carrier and the intermediate transfer member contact each other: 3.92≦M≦29.42 Formula (1) 0<α≦0.294 Formula (2) S>350 Formula (3) in Formulas (1) to (3), M representing 100% modulus (MPa); α representing a ratio (MPa/%) of a change in stress (Δ stress) to a change in a strain amount (Δ strain amount) from 100% strain to 200% strain {Δ stress/Δ strain amount=(stress at a strain amount of 200%−stress at a strain amount of 100%)/(200−100)} in a stress-strain curve; and S representing a breaking elongation (%) measured using a dumbbell type #3 test piece.