A toner comprising a toner particle that comprises a toner base particle and an outermost layer present on the toner base particle surface, the toner base particle containing a binder resin wherein a plurality of concave portions are formed on the toner particle surface, and when T (nm) is an average thickness of the outermost layer in analysis of a cross section of the toner particle as observed with TEM, and a (nm) is a long diameter, b (nm) is a short diameter and d (nm) is a depth of each of the concave portions, respectively, when the concave portions on the toner particle are measured by using SPM from an outermost surface of the outermost layer toward the toner particle center, when “n” represents a number of the concave portions that satisfy specific relationships per 1 μm.sup.2 of the toner particle surface is 30 to 200.

An image forming apparatus includes a developing device accommodating toner, the toner containing:

a binder resin; and a coloring agent; and a fixing device configured to fix a toner image formed with the toner on a recording medium, the fixing device comprising: a tubular belt member; a heating member configured to heat the tubular belt member directly or indirectly in contact with the tubular belt member; and a pressing member in contact with the tubular belt member, wherein the toner under a load of 2 kg has a flow index Tf of from 70 to 121 degrees C., a flow index Te of from 83 to 120 degrees C., and a softening index Tw of from 65 to 80 degrees C.

A brilliant toner includes a first toner which contains a first toner particle containing a flake-shape brilliant pigment; and a second toner which contains a second toner particle containing a flake-shape brilliant pigment, and has a different color from that of the first toner, and an electrostatic charge image developing toner includes a first toner which contains a first toner particle; and a second toner which has a different color from that of the first toner, and contains the second toner particle, in which, based on a charge distribution of each of the first toner and the second toner obtained according to a charge spectrograph method, maximum peak positions of the first toner and the second toner are taken as P.sub.1 and P.sub.2, respectively, and full widths at half maximum of the first toner and the second toner are taken as W.sub.1 and W.sub.2, respectively, |P.sub.1P.sub.2| is 3 mm or less, and |W.sub.1W.sub.2| is 3 mm or less.

A toner comprising a toner particle that contains a toner base particle and an organosilicon polymer on a surface of the toner base particle, wherein the organosilicon polymer forms protruded portions with a prescribed structure on the surface of the toner base particle, and in the toner cross section, when the protrusion width w is the length of the segment where a protruded portion and the toner base particle form a continuous interface, the protrusion diameter D is the maximum length of a protruded portion, and the protrusion height H is the length from the peak of the protruded portion to the line along the circumference of the toner base particle surface, the numerical proportion of these protruded portions having a ratio D/w of the protrusion diameter D to the protrusion width w from 0.33 to 0.80, is a least 70 number %.

A brilliant toner includes a first toner which contains a first toner particle containing a flake-shape brilliant pigment; and a second toner which contains a second toner particle containing a flake-shape brilliant pigment, and has a different color from that of the first toner, and an electrostatic charge image developing toner includes a first toner which contains a first toner particle; and a second toner which has a different color from that of the first toner, and contains the second toner particle, in which, based on a charge distribution of each of the first toner and the second toner obtained according to a charge spectrograph method, maximum peak positions of the first toner and the second toner are taken as P.sub.1 and P.sub.2, respectively, and full widths at half maximum of the first toner and the second toner are taken as W.sub.1 and W.sub.2, respectively, |P.sub.1P.sub.2| is 3 mm or less, and |W.sub.1W.sub.2| is 3 mm or less.

A toner is provided. The toner comprises mother particles and an external additive covering the mother particles. The mother particles comprise a binder resin, and the external additive comprises inorganic particles. The inorganic particles comprise small-size inorganic particles having an equivalent circle diameter of from 30 to 70 nm and large-size inorganic particles having an equivalent circle diameter of from 150 to 200 nm and a circularity of 0.85 or more. The large-size inorganic particles are 20 to 70 in number per 100 m.sup.2 image area of the toner observed with a field-emission scanning electron microscope.

The invention provides a process for preparing core-shell composite particles comprising a polyester, polymerized ethylenically unsaturated silane compounds, and optionally a hydrophobic surface treatment. The invention further provides a composite particle comprising a polyester and a radically polymerized ethylenically unsaturated silane compound.

A toner comprising a binder resin and a colorant, wherein the toner has a Martens hardness, as measured at a maximum load condition of 2.010.sup.4 N, of from 200 MPa to 1,100 MPa.

A toner comprising a toner particle that contains a toner base particle and an organosilicon polymer on a surface of the toner base particle, wherein the organosilicon polymer forms protruded portions with a prescribed structure on the surface of the toner base particle, and in the toner cross section, when the protrusion width w is the length of the segment where a protruded portion and the toner base particle form a continuous interface, the protrusion diameter D is the maximum length of a protruded portion, and the protrusion height H is the length from the peak of the protruded portion to the line along the circumference of the toner base particle surface, the numerical proportion of these protruded portions having a ratio D/w of the protrusion diameter D to the protrusion width w from 0.33 to 0.80, is a least 70 number %.

A toner set has a white toner and a color toner, in which in a case where Cw [mg/L] represents an amount of a cation on a surface of the white toner, measured by ion chromatography, and Cc [mg/L] represents an amount of a cation on a surface of the color toner, measured by ion chromatography, the toner set satisfies Conditions (1) and (2).

0.3 mg/L?Cc?1.2 mg/L(1)

(Cw/Cc)?0.8(2)