US Patent 7769337 Image forming method

An image forming method using a cleaning blade which prevents the spherical toner to pass through a gap between the blade and a photosensitive member and which has durability so as to be less worn away or chipped, wherein it is possible to maintain cleaning performance over a long term even in high-speed printing using spherical toner, and a non-transferred toner and external additives dropping out from colored particles less causes filming on the photosensitive member and less gives damage to the surface of the photosensitive member, is provided.