Image forming method and toner set for developing electrostatic latent image

An image forming method using a color toner including a yellow toner, a magenta toner, a cyan toner, and a black toner, the method comprising:

• a toner image forming step of forming a toner image by developing the color toner on an electrostatic latent image formed by charging and exposing a surface of an electrostatic latent image bearing member;
• a transfer step of transferring the toner image onto a recording medium to form a color toner image;
• and
• a fixing step of fixing the color toner image on the recording medium,
• wherein the yellow toner, the magenta toner, the cyan toner, and the black toner each contain at least a binder resin, a coloring agent, a release agent, and a layered silicate compound, a volume average particle diameter of the yellow toner, the magenta toner, the cyan toner and the black toner is 4 μm to 6 μm, and
• wherein Al (Y) kcps is a content of aluminum element in the yellow toner expressed by Net intensity by wavelength dispersion type fluorescent X-ray analysis,
• Al (M) kcps is a content of aluminum element in the magenta toner expressed by Net intensity by wavelength dispersion type fluorescent X-ray analysis,
• Al (C) kcps is a content of aluminum element in the cyan toner expressed by Net intensity by wavelength dispersion type fluorescent X-ray analysis, and
• Al (K) kcps is a content of aluminum element in the black toner expressed by Net intensity by wavelength dispersion type fluorescent X-ray analysis, and
• the following Formulae (1) to (10) are satisfied by Al (Y), Al (M), Al (C), and Al (K),
• Al(Y)<Al(M)<Al(C) (1)
• Al(Y)<Al(K)<Al(C) (2)
• 3.18<[Al(C)−Al(Y)]<8.65 (3)
• 0.49<Al(Y)<3.85 (4)
• 2.41<Al(M)<4.91 (5)
• 5.41<Al(C)<10.14 (6)
• 2.27<Al(K)<7.94 (7)
• 0.1001<[Al(Y)/Al(M)]<1 (8)
• 0.0484<[Al(Y)/Al(C)]<0.7105 (9)
• 0.0618<[Al(Y)/Al(K)]<1 (10), and
• ΔQ for each toner is 15 μC/g or less, at initial printing and after printing 500,000 sheets, where ΔQ is the difference between a maximum charge amount and a minimum charge amount.