A toner and a method for producing the toner, wherein; the toner comprising a toner particle comprising a polyester resin, and has a softening point of 150° C. or less; the toner particle has the polyester resin within 100 nm from a surface of the toner particle, and where a value obtained by dividing an amount of counted ions for a structure represented by following formula (A) measured from the surface of the toner particle to a depth of 100 nm by TOF-SIMS by a total amount of counted ions is taken as a standard value, one or more peaks of the standard value are present within a range of 100 nm from the surface of the toner particle, and where A(dmax) denotes a standard value at a maximum peak and A(0) denotes a standard value on the toner particle surface, formula 1.15≤A(dmax)/A(0)≤5.00 is satisfied.

##STR00001##

A toner particle comprising: a binder resin; a colorant; and a wax, wherein the binder resin comprises: a first amorphous polyester resin having a pendant group; a second amorphous polyester resin having no pendant group; and a crystalline polyester resin, and wherein a difference between a Solubility Parameter (SP) value of the first amorphous polyester resin and an SP value of the second amorphous polyester resin is 0.3 or more.

A mechanism that enables developer replenishment by a simpler structure and a mechanism that enables more user-friendly developer replenishment are provided. An attachment port to which a developer supply bottle containing a developer stored therein is detachably attachable is disposed in an interior of an image forming apparatus. The developer supply bottle can be attached when the cover is in an open state. According to this image forming apparatus, when the developer supply bottle is attached to the attachment port, the developer inside the developer supply bottle moves into a developer housing chamber by its own weight.

A mechanism that enables developer replenishment by a simpler structure and a mechanism that enables more user-friendly developer replenishment are provided. An attachment port to which a developer supply bottle containing a developer stored therein is detachably attachable is disposed in an interior of an image forming apparatus. The developer supply bottle can be attached when the cover is in an open state. According to this image forming apparatus, when the developer supply bottle is attached to the attachment port, the developer inside the developer supply bottle moves into a developer housing chamber by its own weight.

Provided is a process cartridge detachably attachable to a main body of an electrophotographic apparatus, the process cartridge including: a developing unit including a toner; and an electrophotographic photosensitive member, wherein the toner includes a toner particle, the toner particle has a surface containing a polyvalent acid metal salt particle, and a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains at least one metal oxide particle among an aluminum oxide particle, a silicon dioxide particle, and a tin oxide particle.

The toner is characterized in that, wherein the binder resin is a resin satisfying at least one of the following specification (A) or (B): (A) the binder resin contains a crystalline resin having a unit (a) represented by the following formula (1) and a resin having a sulfide structure; and (B) the binder resin contains a crystalline resin having the sulfide structure and having the unit (a) represented by the following formula (1):

##STR00001##

wherein the colorant is any colorant selected from the specific group consisting of: carbon black and so on, wherein when the toner is subjected to measurement with a differential scanning calorimeter, a peak temperature of a maximum endothermic peak is present in a range of from 50° C. or more to 70° C. or less, and wherein the maximum endothermic peak has an endothermic quantity of 30 J/g or more and 70 J/g or less.

A toner particle includes a binder resin, a colorant, and a wax. The binder resin includes an amorphous polyester resin and a crystalline polyester resin. The amorphous polyester resin includes, as monomer units, a first monomer having a pendant group, terephthalic acid, and ethylene glycol.

Provided is a toner blend composition comprising a first pigmented toner and a second toner that is devoid of any pigment additive, i.e., a ‘non-pigmented or clear toner’. The non-pigmented or clear toner is about 1% to about 15% by weight of the toner blend composition. The resulting inventive toner blend composition surprisingly exhibits similar print density on a page compared to a fully pigmented toner. Moreover, this toner blend composition exhibits improvement in toner usage per page, thus lowering toner cost compared to a fully pigmented toner. The non-pigmented or clear toner may be used in combination with either a monochrome or conventional toner using a carbon black pigment, or a chemically processed toners (‘CPT”) toners using a black pigment, magenta pigment, yellow pigment or a cyan pigment.

Provided is a toner blend composition comprising a first pigmented toner and a second toner that is devoid of any pigment additive, i.e., a ‘non-pigmented or clear toner’. The non-pigmented or clear toner is about 1% to about 15% by weight of the toner blend composition. The resulting inventive toner blend composition surprisingly exhibits similar print density on a page compared to a fully pigmented toner. Moreover, this toner blend composition exhibits improvement in toner usage per page, thus lowering toner cost compared to a fully pigmented toner. The non-pigmented or clear toner may be used in combination with either a monochrome or conventional toner using a carbon black pigment, or a chemically processed toners (‘CPT′’) toners using a black pigment, magenta pigment, yellow pigment or a cyan pigment.

A toner comprising a toner particle comprising a binder resin and an ester compound, wherein: the binder resin comprises a resin A comprising a specific amount of a long-chain acrylate unit and a styrene-based monomer unit, and a resin B comprising a specific monomer unit in a specific amount; the ester compound has an alkyl chain with a specific chain length, a content of the resin A in the chloroform-soluble portion of the toner particles is 60% by mass or more; and using SPm (J/cm.sup.3).sup.1/2 for a SP value of the long-chain acrylate unit and using SPw (J/cm.sup.3).sup.1/2 for a SP value of the ester compound, SPm is 18.00 to 19.00, and SPm and SPw satisfy formula (a).

|SPm−SPw|≤1.50  (a)