Patent ID: 7858283

Claim:
A magnetic carrier comprising magnetic carrier particles, each magnetic carrier particle having at least a porous magnetic core particle and a resin, wherein; in a backscattered electron image of the magnetic carrier particles, photographed with a scanning electron microscope as taken at an accelerating voltage of 2.0 kV; magnetic carrier particles having area proportion S 1 of from 0.5 area % or more to 8.0 area % or less are in a proportion of 80% by number or more in the magnetic carrier; the area proportion S 1 being found from the following expression (1): S 1 =(the total area of portions having a high luminance which come from a metal oxide on one particle of the magnetic carrier particles/the total projected area of that particle)×100 (1); in the magnetic carrier, an average proportion Av 1 of the total area of portions having a high luminance which come from the metal oxide on the magnetic carrier particles to the total projected area of the magnetic carrier particles is from 0.5 area % or more to 8.0 area % or less; and in the magnetic carrier, an average proportion Av 2 found from the following expression (2) is 10.0 area % or less: Av 2 =(the total area of portions having a high luminance which come from the metal oxide on the magnetic carrier particles and being domains each of which has an area of 6.672 μm 2 or more/the total area of portions having a high luminance which come from the metal oxide of the magnetic carrier particles)×100 (2).