An image forming apparatus having a latent electrostatic image bearing member, a metal-containing compound adhesion unit, a latent electrostatic image forming unit, a developing unit, a transferring unit, a fixing unit, and a cleaning unit, in which the rate of variability in the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member, represented by the following equation, is 10% to 70%, Rate of variability=(W2/W1).times.100, in which W1 represents the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound according to XPS immediately after the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member, and W2 represents the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member according to XPS after 100 sheets of paper are continuously printed using the image forming apparatus.