| abstract |
A developer is carried on a developer-carrying member and conveyed to a developing region to be used for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrostatic latent image-bearing member. The developer includes a toner, and the toner includes toner particles containing 5 - 30 wt. % of a low-softening compound and having a shape factor SF-1 of 100 - 130. The developer-carrying member has a developer-carrying surface satisfying the conditions of: n 0.2 µm ≦ Ra ≦ 5.0 µm, n 10 µm ≦ Sm ≦ 80 µm, and n 0.05 ≦ Ra/Sm ≦ 0.5, nwherein Ra denotes a center line-average roughness, and Sm denotes an average spacing between unevennesses. The toner shows good fixability and fluidity and is yet uniformly applied and conveyed to be used for developing because of the appropriate surface roughness of the developer-carrying member. The developed toner image can be transferred at a high transfer ratio. |