A toner includes a toner particle containing a binder resin and a silica fine particle A on a surface of the toner particle, wherein D50 on a number basis of the toner is 3.0 to 6.0 the silica fine particle A is a particle having a particle diameter of 80 to 500 nm, the particle diameter being confirmable by observing the toner with a SEM, and when the average coverage with the silica fine particle A determined by image analysis of a particle group of a small particle diameter side of the toner with a SEM is set to S.sub.s and the average coverage with the silica fine particle A determined by image analysis of a particle group of a large particle diameter side of the toner with a scanning electron microscope is set to S.sub.1, S.sub.s is 20 to 70 area %, S.sub.s and S.sub.1 satisfy S.sub.1/S.sub.s0.80.

Provided is a magenta toner which is more excellent in durability in a high temperature and high humidity environment than conventional ones. The magenta toner comprises a binder resin, a magenta colorant, a release agent and an external additive, wherein a compound A, a compound B and a compound C each having a specific chemical structure are contained as the magenta colorant, and wherein the release agent has a maximum endothermic peak in a range of from 70 C. to 80 C. during temperature increase, in a DSC curve measured by a differential scanning calorimeter.

Provided is an image forming method using an electrophotographic photoreceptor provided with a photosensitive layer and a protective layer in this order on a conductive support, and a toner, and the image forming method containing a charging step, an exposure step, a development step, a transfer step, a fixing step, and a cleaning step, wherein the protective layer contains at least a cured resin obtained by curing a polymerizable compound; the toner contains 50% by number or more of toner particles having a shape factor calculated by the equation (1) in the range of 1.2 to 1.6, and a variation coefficient of the shape factor is 16% or less; and the toner contains alumina particles having a number average particle diameter in the range of 5 to 60 nm and silica particles having a number average particle diameter in the range of 80 to 200 nm.

A toner for developing an electrostatic image includes toner base particles containing a binder resin and an inorganic pigment, and an external additive, wherein the external additive contains alumina particles, and the number average particle size of primary particles of the alumina particles is in the range of 5 nm to 60 nm.

A positively chargeable toner includes toner particles. The toner particles each include a toner mother particle containing a binder resin, and an external additive adhering to a surface of the toner mother particle. The external additive includes specific silica particles, specific titania particles, and specific crosslinked resin particles. The specific silica particles each include a silica base, and a first surface treatment layer present on a surface of the silica base. The first surface treatment layer has an alkyl group having a carbon number of at least 8 and no greater than 16, and an amino group. The specific titania particles each include a titania base, and a second surface treatment layer present on a surface of the titania base. The second surface treatment layer has an alkyl group having a carbon number of at least 3 and no greater than 8.

Provided is an external additive having a resin particle containing a crystalline resin, and an inorganic fine particle containing a metal atom, the inorganic fine particle being embedded in the resin particle, wherein part of the inorganic fine particle being exposed on a surface of the resin particle, the maximum endothermic peak temperature of the external additive during a first temperature rise is from 50.0 C. to 120 C., the shape factor SF-2 of the external additive is from 110 to 150, and the external additive satisfies following formulae (1) and (2) below, in which Za (mass %) is the percentage content of a metal atom contained in the inorganic fine particle on the surface of the external additive in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Zb (mass %) is the percentage content of the metal atom in thermogravimetric analysis of the external additive,
Za15(1), and
Za/Zb0.7(2)

A toner having a toner particle, which contains a binder resin, and inorganic fine particles, the toner being characterized in that the binder resin contains a polyester resin, the polyester resin has, at a terminal, an alkyl group having an average number of carbon atoms of from 4 to 102, the number average particle diameter of primary particles of the inorganic fine particles is from 10 to 90 nm, the dielectric constant of the inorganic fine particles is from 55.0 to 100.0 pF/m, as measured at 25 C. and 1 MHz, and the inorganic fine particles are surface-treated with an alkylalkoxysilane represented by formula (1) below:
C.sub.nH.sub.2n+1SiOC.sub.mH.sub.2m+1).sub.3(1)
in formula (1), n denotes an integer of from 4 to 20, and m denotes an integer of from 1 to 3.

A toner including toner particles, each toner particle including a toner base particle, and inorganic particles, wherein the inorganic particles include particles of a fluorine-containing aluminium compound, and a liberation ratio of the inorganic particles is 10% or greater but 60% or less.

A toner is provided which includes: a toner base particle including a binder resin; and an external additive including inorganic particles. A particle size distribution of primary particles of the inorganic particles has a plurality of peaks in the range of from 5 nm through 50 nm. The particle size distribution of the primary particles satisfies all of expressions (1) to (3) below:

n1d>n2d (1);

10<(n1d+n2d) (2); and

30{(n2h/n1h)100}<100 (3), where n1d is a particle diameter (nm) at a peak n1 which is the highest peak among the plurality of peaks and n2d is a particle diameter (nm) of a peak n2 which is the second highest peak among the plurality of peaks, and n1h is a height of the peak n1 and n2h is a height of the peak n2.

Provided is a toner including a binder resin, and a charge-controlling agent, wherein a volume average particle diameter X of the toner after a stress treatment satisfies Formula (1), and an amount Y of fine toner particles having particle diameters of 3 micrometers or smaller and circularity of 0.70 or less satisfies Formula (2).