A fixing device includes a rotator, an endless belt, and a nip formation pad. The endless belt contacts the rotator and rotates in a direction of rotation. The nip formation pad contacts an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt to form a fixing nip between the endless belt and the rotator that presses the endless belt against the nip formation pad. The nip formation pad includes a slide layer, a base layer, and a lubricant holding layer. The slide layer contacts the endless belt. The base layer is disposed away from the endless belt. The lubricant holding layer is interposed between the slide layer and the base layer to hold a lubricant inside the lubricant holding layer and supply the lubricant to the slide layer. The slide layer has a porous structure including a plurality of through holes in a thickness direction of the slide layer.

An image forming apparatus includes an image holding member, a charging device, an electrostatic charge image forming device, a developing device having a toner, a transfer device, and a fixing device, wherein the fixing device includes a fixing belt, a rotational member, and a heater; the toner contains an amorphous polyester resin as a binder resin; and the toner has a weight average molecular weight Mw and a number average molecular weight Mn, Mw is from 25000 to 60000, and Mw/Mn is from 5 to 10, and has an infrared absorption spectrometry, the ratio of absorbance for a wavelength of 1500 cm.sup.1 to absorbance for a wavelength of 720 cm.sup.1 is 0.6 or less, and the ratio of absorbance for a wavelength of 820 cm.sup.1 to absorbance for a wavelength of 720 cm.sup.1 is 0.4 or less.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section and a controller. The image forming section selectively forms a first toner image to be printed on transfer paper other than plain paper with use of a toner and forms a second toner image to be printed on the plain paper with use of the toner. The controller controls the image forming section and thereby makes a first area density of the toner in the first toner image and a second area density of the toner in the second toner image differ from each other.

A fixing device includes a rotator, an endless belt, and a nip formation pad. The endless belt contacts the rotator and rotates in a direction of rotation. The nip formation pad contacts an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt to form a fixing nip between the endless belt and the rotator that presses the endless belt against the nip formation pad. The nip formation pad includes a slide layer, a base layer, and a lubricant holding layer. The slide layer contacts the endless belt. The base layer is disposed away from the endless belt. The lubricant holding layer is interposed between the slide layer and the base layer to hold a lubricant inside the lubricant holding layer and supply the lubricant to the slide layer. The slide layer has a porous structure including a plurality of through holes in a thickness direction of the slide layer.

To switch between four nip modes, a cam is driven by a single drive to move between first to fourth positions. At the first position, a first nip between a first pressing body and a fixing member has a first width, and a second nip between a second pressing body and the fixing member has a second width. At the second position, the first nip has a third width smaller than the first width, and the second nip has a width greater than or equal to the second width. At the third position, the first nip has a width greater than or equal to the first width, and the second nip has a fourth width smaller than the second width. At the fourth position, the first nip has a fifth width smaller than the first width, and the second nip has a sixth width smaller than the second width.

An image forming apparatus includes: a transferring unit that transfers an image carried on an image carrier to a medium; a fixing unit that is disposed in an upper portion of a main body of the image forming apparatus, that includes a heat source, and that fixes the image transferred to the medium by heat; a discharge port that is disposed below the fixing unit, the medium having the fixed image being discharged to the discharge port; and a discharge unit that is disposed at a position where the discharge unit overlaps the fixing unit when viewed from above and below the fixing unit, that includes an open portion formed between the discharge unit and the discharge port, and that accommodates the medium having passed through the discharge port.

In an image-forming apparatus, a controller is configured to perform: in a case where the controller performs forming a multicolor image on a sheet: bringing, in response to a temperature of a fixing device reaching a first temperature lower than a fixing temperature, first and second developing rollers into contact with first and second photosensitive drums; and feeding, after a first period of time elapses from a time when the temperature of the fixing device reaches the first temperature, a sheet from a sheet tray toward the belt using a pickup roller. The controller is configured to further perform: in a case where the controller performs forming a single-color image on the sheet: bringing, after a second period of time elapses from the time when the temperature of the fixing device reaches the first temperature, the second developing roller into contact with the second photosensitive drum; and the feeding.

An electrostatic-image developing toner set includes a white toner including white toner particles including a polyester resin and a white colorant, and a colored toner other than a white toner, the colored toner including colored toner particles including a vinyl resin, a polyester resin, and a colored colorant, in which the mass ratio C of the polyester resin included in the colored toner particles to the vinyl resin included in the colored toner particles is 0.7 or more and 10 or less, and when the cross section of the colored toner particles is observed, the area fraction of the polyester resin present in a surface layer region of the colored toner particles, the surface layer region corresponding to 15% of the area of the cross section of the colored toner particles, is 60% or more and 100% or less.

An electrostatic-image developing toner set includes a white toner including white toner particles including a polyester resin and a white colorant; and a colored toner other than a white toner, the colored toner including colored toner particles including a vinyl resin, a polyester resin, and a colored colorant, in which a mass ratio C of the polyester resin included in the colored toner particles to the vinyl resin included in the colored toner particles is 0.7 or more and 10 or less, and when a cross section of the colored toner particles is observed, the polyester resin forms a domain having a maximum diameter of 100 nm or more and 1 m or less.

Provided is an image forming method including: forming, on a recording medium, a toner image including a white toner image and a color toner image disposed on the white toner image; and fixing the toner image onto the recording medium. In the fixing, the recording medium on which the toner image is formed is nipped between an annular belt, which includes an inner periphery that is at least partially supported by a heating member, and a facing member facing the heating member via the annular belt, and the toner image is fixed on the recording medium. The white toner and the color toner satisfy a relation of a following expression: 0.3log (W110)log (C100).