By causing the movement of charge from a toner to a latent image carrier,
the amount of charge of the toner is lowered to an amount of charge
suitable for facilitating the transfer of toner so as to improve the
transfer efficiency. For this, an image forming apparatus includes a
latent image carrier and a developing means for forming a negatively
chargeable toner layer compose of two stories or less on a toner carrier
by a toner layer thickness regulating member. An electrostatic latent
image on the latent image carrier is developed with the toner to form a
visible image and the visible image is transferred to a transfer medium.
Further, the work functions (.PHI..sub.opc) of the surface of the latent
image carrier is set to be larger than the work function (.PHI..sub.t) of
the toner.
