A developer comprises: at least one carrier; and, in an amount of 10 wt-% or less, a coating material (237), in particular for generating a coating layer by non-impact printing, the coating material being provided in the form of particles and comprising: a curable resin preferably an at least partially thermal curable resin and even more in particular curable by a crosslinking agent able to react with functional groups of the resin, the resin comprising in particular an amorphous resin portion; wherein an average diameter of the particles is in a range between 1 m and 25 m; and wherein the particles have an average sphericity larger than 0.7, in particular larger than 0.8, in particular a sphericity larger than 0.9; wherein, if the coating material is heated from room temperature with a heating rate of 5 K per minute, the coating material upon heating reduces its viscosity down to a minimum viscosity and increases its viscosity upon further increase of the temperature; wherein the minimum viscosity is in a range between 3 Pascal seconds and 20000 Pascal seconds.

A non-impact printing device (301) comprising: a coating material (237) being curable and comprising a resin; the coating material comprising an amorphous resin portion in an amount of at least 30 w-% based on the overall amount of resin and comprising with respect to the entire amount of coating material less than 0.5 w-% of flow additive; a printing unit, in particular an electrophotographic printing unit, being configured for printing the coating material (237) so as to form a coating layer, wherein the coating layer forms at least part of a layer package comprising at least one layer; the non-impact printing device being configured for providing the layer package so as to define a surface structure with the layer package; wherein the surface structure is defined by a thickness variation of the layer package; wherein the thickness variation is in a range between 1 m and 1000 m, in particular in a range between 1 and 300 m, and is in particular more than 1 m, in particular more than 5 m, in particular more than 10 m and in particular more than 20 m.

Coating material (237) for generating a coating layer by non-impact printing wherein the coating layer represents an image and wherein a resolution of the image is at least 100 DPI, the coating material comprising a curable resin; wherein the coating material (237) exhibits a minimum viscosity when being heated from room temperature with a heating rate of 5 Kelvin per minute up to a temperature where curing of the coating material occurs, wherein the minimum viscosity is in a range between 3 Pascal seconds to 20000 Pascal seconds, in particular in a range between 50 Pascal seconds and 10000 Pascal seconds and further in particular in a range between 250 Pascal seconds and 7000 Pascal seconds; and wherein a pill flow length is below 350 mm at a potential curing temperature which may be used to cure the coating material.

A toner including: a toner particle including a toner base particle containing a binder resin, and an organosilicon condensate present on a surface of the toner base particle, wherein a charge attenuation constant of the toner is 3.510.sup.3 or more to 1.010.sup.0 or less.

The present invention provides an aqueous developer for a flexographic printing plate capable of maintaining good printing reproducibility and suppressing the adhesion and aggregation of the dispersion in the developer during repeated use, and a method of manufacturing a flexographic printing plate using the same. The aqueous developer for a flexographic printing plate according to the present invention is an aqueous developer for a flexographic printing plate containing a surfactant having a molecular weight of 1000 or more, and water.

A metal compound includes a metal and at least two aromatic hydroxycarboxylic acid structures. Each aromatic hydroxycarboxylic acid structure includes an aromatic moiety having a hydroxyl substituent and a carboxylic acid substituent, which cooperatively bond the aromatic moiety to the metal via at least one of ionic bond, covalent bond and coordinate bond. Each aromatic hydroxycarboxylic acid structure is bonded to a polymer segment.

A toner comprising: a toner particle including a binder resin; and an external additive, wherein the external additive includes an external additive A which is silica fine particles and an external additive B which is a fatty acid metal salt, the external additive A has a specific particle diameter, a coverage ratio of a surface of the toner particle with the external additive A is from 60% to 80%, and where an average theoretical surface area obtained from a number average particle diameter, a particle size distribution and a true density of the toner particle is denoted by C (m.sup.2/g), an amount of the external additive B is denoted by D (parts by mass) and a coverage ratio of the surface of the toner particle with the external additive B is denoted by E (%), following formulas are satisfied:

0.05D/C2.00

E/(D/C)50.0.

A toner containing a toner particle that contains a binder resin and a crystalline material, wherein, in measurement of powder dynamic viscoelasticity of the toner, when T(A) C. is taken as an onset temperature for a storage elastic modulus E obtained at a ramp rate of 20 C./min, EA(100) Pa is taken as a storage elastic modulus at 100 C. obtained at a ramp rate of 20 C./min, and T(B) C. is taken as an onset temperature for a storage elastic modulus E obtained at a ramp rate of 5 C./min, T(A)T(B) is 3.0 C. or less, T(A) is from 45.0 C. to 70.0 C., and EA(100) is from 4.010.sup.9 Pa to 6.510.sup.9 Pa.

A toner including a toner particle including a binder resin and a crystalline material, wherein in powder dynamic viscoelasticity measurement of the toner, where an onset temperature of a storage elastic modulus E obtained when a temperature is raised at 20 C./min is denoted by T(A) C., and an onset temperature of a storage elastic modulus E obtained when a temperature is raised at 5 C./min is denoted by T(B) C., T(A)T(B) is 3.0 C. or less, in DSC of the toner, a peak temperature of a maximum endothermic peak is from 50.0 C. to 90.0 C., and an amount of a tetrahydrofuran-insoluble component in the binder resin is from 15% by mass to 60% by mass.

An image forming apparatus that executes an image forming operation for forming a toner image on a recording material and an application operation of applying a metal soap to a surface of an image bearing member by supplying a toner stored in a toner storing unit to the surface of the image bearing member from the developing member. A surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the application operation is lower than the surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the image forming operation, and a speed difference between the surficial moving speed of the developing member and the surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the application operation is larger than that during the image forming operation.