An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member on
which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a charging member for
being supplied with a charging voltage which is a DC voltage not having
an AC voltage component and for contacting the bearing member to
electrically charge a surface of the bearing member using an electric
discharge; a transfer member for transferring onto a transfer material a
toner image formed on the surface of the bearing member by developing the
electrostatic latent image, at a transfer position; wherein the charging
potential of the charging member is different between when the charging
member provides a first region with a potential and when the charging
member provides a second region with a potential, thus providing a
predetermined potential difference between the first region and the
second region, and wherein the transfer member is not supplied with a
voltage when the second region is at the transfer position, where the
first region is a region on the image bearing member which has been
charged by the charging member and which is to be an image forming
region, and the second region is a region of the image bearing member
which is a non-image-forming region in an immediately previous rotation
of the image bearing member and which corresponds to the first region on
the bearing member.