An electrostatic charge image developing carrier, containing: a magnetic particle; and a resin coating layer that coats the magnetic particle and contains inorganic particles, and the electrostatic charge image developing carrier has a surface of a surface roughness satisfying a ratio B/A of a surface area B to a plan view area A of 1.020 or more and 1.100 or less, the plan view area A and the surface area B being obtained by three-dimensional analysis of the surface, and the magnetic particle has a surface roughness satisfying 0.5 μm≤Sm≤2.5 μm and 0.3 μm≤Ra≤1.2 μm, and Sm represents an average ruggedness interval and Ra represents an arithmetic average surface roughness.

A magnetic carrier comprises a magnetic carrier core and a coating resin layer coating a surface of the magnetic carrier core. The coating resin layer contains resin A and resin B at contents of 1% to 50% by mass and 50% to 90% by mass, respectively, based on resin components of the coating resin layer. The resin A has a first partial structure and a second partial structure, while the resin B has a third partial structure and a fourth partial structure. The mass X of the resin A, the total mass Ma of the first partial structure, and the total mass Mb of the second partial structure satisfy 0.50≤(Ma+Mb)/X≤1.00 and 0.10≤a/b≤30.0, and the SP value of the first partial structure SPa1 and the SP value of the third partial structure SPb3 satisfy 0≤|SPa1—SPb3|≤10.0.

A carrier for developing an electrostatic latent image is provided. The carrier comprises a core particle having an internal void ratio of from 0.0% to 2.0% and a coating layer coating the core particle. The coating layer contains flat chargeable particles satisfying Formula 1 blow:

1.0≤R1/R2≤3.0  Formula 1

where R1 [nm] and R2 [nm] represent a major axis and a thickness, respectively, of each of the flat chargeable particles. The carrier has an apparent density of from 2.0 to 2.5 g/cm.sup.3.

The present invention provides: a ferrite particle containing a crystal phase component containing a perovskite crystal represented by the compositional formula RZrO.sub.3 (where R is an alkaline earth metal element); and an electrophotographic developer carrier core material, an electrophotographic developer carrier, and an electrophotographic developer containing the ferrite particles.

Provided is an image forming method, including: transferring and fixing a toner onto a recording medium, and forming an image including a plurality of layers, in which an attachment amount of the toner on the recording medium is greater than or equal to 8 g/m.sup.2 and less than or equal to 40 g/m.sup.2, a toner forming a layer in contact with a fixing member contains at least a first mold release agent containing ester wax and a second mold release agent containing microcrystalline wax, and a special color toner is contained in any layer of the plurality of layers.

Provided are a ferrite carrier core material for an electrophotographic developer having a full length L.sub.1 of grain boundary and a circumference length L.sub.2 of the core material in a cross-section of the core material, and satisfying a relationship of 2≤L.sub.1/L.sub.2≤9; a carrier for an electrophotographic developer including the ferrite carrier core material and a coating layer containing a resin provided on a surface of the ferrite carrier core material; and an electrophotographic developer including the carrier and a toner.

To provide a magnetic core material and carrier for electrophotographic developer, which have small environmental dependence of the electric resistance, can suppress the carrier scattering, and can stably provide good images; a developer contains the carrier; and methods for producing them. The magnetic core material satisfying a value of Formula (1): a+b×10+c+d+e+f, being from 20 to 150, when a fluoride ion amount is denoted by a (ppm), a chloride ion amount is denoted by b (ppm), a bromide ion amount is denoted by c (ppm), a nitrite ion amount is denoted by d (ppm), a nitrate ion amount is denoted by e (ppm), and a sulfate ion amount is denoted by f (ppm), which are measured by a combustion ion chromatography method.

An electrostatic charge image developer contains toner particles, layered-compound particles that are particles of a nitrogen-containing layered compound, and a resin-coated carrier that has magnetic particles and a resin layer covering the magnetic particles. The maximum height Ry of the roughness profile as defined in JIS B0601: 1994 of the surface of the resin-coated carrier is 0.01 μm or more and 0.20 μm or less.

An electrostatic charge image developer contains toner particles, layered-compound particles that are particles of a nitrogen-containing layered compound, and a resin-coated carrier that has magnetic particles and a resin layer covering the magnetic particles. The maximum height Ry of the roughness profile as defined in JIS B0601: 1994 of the surface of the resin-coated carrier is 0.01 μm or more and 0.20 μm or less.

According to one embodiment, a toner having excellent heat roller life performance, low-temperature offset resistance, and high-temperature offset resistance, and a toner cartridge and an image forming apparatus, in each of which the toner is stored, are provided.

A toner according to an embodiment contains a colorant, an amorphous polyester resin A, and an amorphous polyester resin B. The amorphous polyester resin A has an Mw.sub.A of 0.9×10.sup.4 to 1.5×10.sup.4. The amorphous polyester resin B has an Mw.sub.B of 4.0×10.sup.4 to 11.0×10.sup.4. The amorphous polyester resin A has an Mn.sub.A of 3.0×10.sup.3 to 4.0×10.sup.3. Mw.sub.A/Mn.sub.A is between 3.1 and 4.0. The amorphous polyester resin B has an Mn.sub.B of 2.2×10.sup.3 to 3.5×10.sup.3. Mw.sub.B/Mn.sub.B is between 11.4 and 50. The content of the amorphous polyester resin A is between 50 and 60 mass %. The content of the amorphous polyester resin B is between 20 and 30 mass %.