According to the present invention, there is provided a carrier core material that is formed of ferrite particles in which 48 to 52 mass % of Fe, 16 to 22 mass % of Mn, 1.0 to 3.5 mass % of Mg and 0.05 to 0.5 mass % of Ca are included, and when an electrical resistance value with an applied voltage of 500 V in an environment (in an L/L environment) in which the temperature is 10° C. and the relative humidity is 35% is R.sub.L (Ω.Math.cm), and an electrical resistance value with an applied voltage of 500 V in an environment (in an H/H environment) in which the temperature is 30° C. and the relative humidity is 70% is R.sub.H (Ω.Math.cm), formula (1) below is satisfied.
0.1≤(log R.sub.L−log R.sub.H)≤0.3  (1)

An object of the present invention is to provide a ferrite particle having a low apparent density, filling a specified volume with a low weight with various properties maintained in a controllable state, a ferrite carrier core material composed of the ferrite particle, and a ferrite carrier using the ferrite core material and an electrophotographic developer. To achieve the object, the ferrite particle having the outer shell structure containing the Ti oxide for the ferrite carrier core material, and the ferrite carrier using the ferrite particle as the ferrite carrier core material and the electrophotographic developer are employed.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electrostatic charge image developing toner, a two-component developer, and an image forming method, each capable of employing a two-component trickle touchdown developing system which ensures excellent image density stability and no occurrence of ghost and is used in an electrophotographic copier or an electrostatic recording device. The present invention provides an electrostatic charge image developing toner having positive chargeability; containing a styrene acrylic resin as the binding resin; and containing a nigrosine-containing positive charge control agent and a negative charge control agent as the charge control agent, in which the percentage content of the percentage content of the negative charge control agent in all charge control agents is not less than the percentage content of the positive charge control agent.

An electrostatic charge image developing carrier includes: magnetic particles; and a resin layer coating the magnetic particles and containing inorganic particles, in which an exposed area ratio of the magnetic particles is 0.1% or more and 4.0% or less, an average particle diameter of the inorganic particles is 5 nm or more and 90 nm or less, and a ratio B/A of a surface area B of the electrostatic charge image developing carrier to a plan view area A of the electrostatic charge image developing carrier is 1.020 or more and 1.100 or less when a surface of the electrostatic charge image developing carrier is three-dimensionally analyzed.

A developing device includes a developing container, a first stirring conveyance member, a second stirring conveyance member, and a developer carrying member. The developing container includes a first conveyance chamber and a second conveyance chamber that are arranged mutually side by side, and contains a two-component developer including a carrier and a toner. The first stirring conveyance member stirs and conveys the developer present in the first conveyance chamber in a first direction. The second stirring conveyance member stirs and conveys the developer present in the second conveyance chamber in a second direction. The developing container includes a toner replenishment portion that directly feeds a replenishment toner into the developer present in the first conveyance chamber from an upstream side of the first conveyance chamber with respect to the first direction. The carrier satisfies 0.73≤FR×AD/shape factor≤2.10.

An electrostatic charge image developer contains: a toner containing a toner particle and an external additive; and a carrier containing a magnetic particle and a resin layer covering the magnetic particle; and the toner particle has a surface property index value of 1.0 or more and less than 2.0; and the carrier has a surface having a ratio B/A of a surface area B to a plane view area A of 1.020 or more and 1.100 or less, the plane view area A and the surface area B being obtained by three-dimensional analysis of the surface of the carrier.

An electrostatic charge image developer containing: a toner containing a toner particle and an external additive; and a carrier containing a magnetic particle and a resin layer covering the magnetic particle, in which the toner particle has a surface property index value of 2.0 or more and 2.8 or less; and the carrier has a surface having a ratio BIA of a surface area B to a planar view area A of 1.020 or more and 1.100 or less, the planar view area A and the surface area B being obtained by three-dimensional analysis of the surface of the carrier.

An electrostatic image developer includes a toner including toner particles that include a binder resin and a release agent and have an exposure ratio of the release agent of 15% or more and 30% or less, and a carrier including magnetic particles and resin cover layers covering the magnetic particles and including inorganic particles, wherein the inorganic particles have an arithmetic average particle size of 5 nm or more and 90 nm or less, the resin cover layers have an average thickness of 0.6 μm or more and 1.4 μm or less, and a fine-irregularity-structure surface roughness of surfaces of the carrier three-dimensionally analyzed has, in an analysis region, a ratio B/A of an irregularity-surface area B to a plan-view area A of 1.020 or more and 1.100 or less.

An electrostatic image developer includes a toner including toner particles and an external additive, wherein an amount of the external additive that is loose relative to a total mass of the external additive is 5 mass % or less, and a carrier including magnetic particles and resin cover layers covering the magnetic particles and including inorganic particles, wherein a fine-irregularity-structure surface roughness of surfaces three-dimensionally analyzed has, in an analysis region, a ratio B/A of an irregularity-surface area B to a plan-view area A of 1.020 or more and 1.100 or less.

A developing device includes a developing container storing a two-component developer containing a magnetic carrier and a toner, a developer carrying member carrying the developer on its outer circumferential surface, and a regulation member arranged to be opposed at a prescribed distance to the developer carrying member. The developer carrying member includes a developing sleeve on which a magnetic brush is formed, and a magnet secured in the developing sleeve and having a plurality of magnetic poles including a regulation pole opposed to the regulation member and a downstream-side magnetic pole arranged downstream of the regulation pole with respect to the rotation direction of the developing sleeve. The magnet is such that the vertical magnetic force gradient [mT/° ] has a local minimum value near a position at which the vertical magnetic force is 0 [mT] between the downstream-side surface of the regulation member and the downstream-side magnetic pole.