Patent ID: 7316882

Claim:
An image forming method using flash-fixable color toners, each of the color toners comprising a binder resin, a coloring agent, and an infrared absorbent, wherein the method comprising the steps of: initially forming an image on a recording medium using a first toner and flash-fixating the image of the first toner; and repeatedly forming an image on the recording medium using an nth toner and flash-fixating the image of the nth toner, wherein each of the formed and flash-fixated images of the first toner through the nth toner satisfies the following relationship: 4950≦ρ X−1 /( E X−1 ·S X−1 )≧ρ X /( E X S X )≧1150 and E X−1 ≧E X where “S X ” represents a PAS level of the nth toner, X being an integer of 2 to n “ρ X ” represents a melt viscosity of the nth toner at a reference temperature, “E X ” represents an energy of a flash light used for fixing the image of the nth toner, “S X−1 ” represents a PAS level of the (n−1)th toner, “ρ X−1 ” represents a melt viscosity of the (n−1)th toner at a reference temperature, “E X−1 ” represents an energy of a flash light used for fixing the image of the (n−1)th toner.