A carrier for a developer includes carrier particles. The carrier particles have a sea island structure including a sea portion and an island portion on the surface. The island portion contains a nitrogen-containing silicone resin. The sea portion contains a nitrogen-free silicone resin. The area ratio of the island portion in the total area of the surface of the carrier particle is 20% or more and 40% or less.

A two-component developer 100 includes a carrier 200 and a toner 300. The carrier 200 satisfies the relationships 100≤α≤220 and 300≤β≤480 when a voltage is applied in 1 V steps by a bridge resistance measurement method, where α (V) is a carrier voltage value obtained when a current value flowing through the carrier 200 reaches 1.0.sup.−7 (A), and β (V) is a carrier voltage value obtained when the current value reaches 1.0.sup.−5 (A).

The present invention provides: a ferrite carrier core material for an electrophotographic developer, the material having a mesh passing amount of 3 wt % or less as indicated by the ratio of the weight of particles passing through a 16 μm-mesh to the weight of whole particles constituting a powder, and having a particle strength index of 2 wt % or less as indicated by a difference between the mesh passing amounts before and after crushing; a ferrite carrier which is for an electrophotographic developer and in which the surface of the ferrite carrier core material is coated with a resin; and an electrophotographic developer which includes the ferrite carrier and a toner.

A carrier for forming an electrophotographic image is provided. The carrier comprises a core particle and a coating layer coating the core particle. The coating layer contains a conductive component comprising an element A, and a coating resin comprising an element B. The element A is undetected in the coating resin by an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, and the element B is undetected in the conductive component by the energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer. A standard deviation of a value A/B is 0.4 or less, where the value A/B is a ratio of the element A to the element B in intensity measured by the energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer.

A two-component developer 100 includes a carrier 200 and a toner 300. The carrier 200 satisfies the relationships 100≤α≤220 and 300≤β≤480 when a voltage is applied in 1 V steps by a bridge resistance measurement method, where α (V) is a carrier voltage value obtained when a current value flowing through the carrier 200 reaches 1.0.sup.−7 (A), and β (V) is a carrier voltage value obtained when the current value reaches 1.0.sup.−5 (A).

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.

A carrier for forming an electrophotographic image is provided. The carrier includes a core particle comprising a manganese-based ferrite particle having an apparent density of from 2.0 to 2.2 g/cm.sup.3 and a magnetization of from 44 to 52 emu/g in a magnetic field of 500 Oe; and a coating layer coating a surface of the core particle. The coating layer contains a carbon black, an inorganic particle A, and an inorganic particle B. The inorganic particle A and the carbon black each have a concentration gradient in a thickness direction of the coating layer. A concentration of the inorganic particle A increases toward a surface of the coating layer, and a concentration of the carbon black decreases toward the surface of the coating layer.

A toner comprising: a toner particle that contains a release agent-containing toner base particle, and an organosilicon polymer on a toner base particle surface, and an external additive A, the organosilicon polymer has a T3 unit structure; the organosilicon polymer forms protruded portions on the toner base particle surface; the number-average value of the protrusion height H is from 30 nm to 300 nm; the ratio of the number-average primary particle diameter R of the external additive A to the number-average value of the protrusion height H is from 1.00 to 4.00; the number-average primary particle diameter R of the external additive A is from 30 nm to 1,200 nm; and, in an image obtained by observing the toner surface with SEM, the area percentage for the bright region area in the image with reference to the total area of the image is from 30.0% to 75.0%.

A carrier for a developer includes carrier particles. The carrier particles have a sea island structure including a sea portion and an island portion on the surface. The island portion contains a nitrogen-containing silicone resin. The sea portion contains a nitrogen-free silicone resin. The area ratio of the island portion in the total area of the surface of the carrier particle is 20% or more and 40% or less.