Patent ID: 7983577

Claim:
An image forming apparatus configured to perform image forming operations to produce an image, comprising: an image bearing member configured to bear an electrostatic image thereon; a developing device, which has a developer containing portion containing a developer including at least a toner and which is configured to develop the electrostatic image with the developer to form a toner image on the image bearing member; and a toner supplying device configured to supply a developer supplement including at least the toner to the developer containing portion, comprising: a toner container containing the developer supplement; a feeding passage configured to connect the toner container with the developer containing portion; a pump, in which a first member is moved while rubbing a second member to feed the developer supplement from the toner container to the developer containing portion through the feeding passage; and a residual toner detector configured to detect an amount of the developer supplement remaining in the toner container to determine whether the toner container is in a near-empty state, wherein even after the residual toner detector determines that the toner container is in a near-empty state, the image forming apparatus continues the image forming operations as long as a predetermined condition is satisfied while stopping the pump.