An image forming apparatus configured to use a highly viscous, dense developing liquid including a carrier liquid and toner. The apparatus includes a developing unit with a developer carrier and a coating member for coating the developing liquid on the developer carrier. The developer carrier conveys the liquid to a developing zone where it faces an image carrier to develop a latent image on the image carrier. In the developing zone, the toner is caused to move toward the image by electrophoresis to form a toner layer in which the toner is present in the carrier liquid and a carrier layer in which the toner is absent. When the developer carrier and image carrier are moved from each other, the toner moves toward the image such that the developing liquid separates at the boundary between the toner and carrier layers.