Electrophotographic image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image holding member;
• a charging unit that charges a surface of the image holding member;
• an electrostatic latent image forming unit that forms an electrostatic latent image on the charged surface of the image holding member;
• a developing unit that includes a developer containing toner particles containing a release agent having a melting temperature ranging from 60° C. to 100° C. and that develops the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image holding member with the developer to form a toner image;
• a transferring unit that transfers the toner image to a first side of a recording medium;
• a fixing unit that includes two members of which outer surfaces are in contact with each other to form a nipping region and that allows the recording medium having the transferred toner image to pass through the nipping region to fix the toner image to the first side of the recording medium;
• a first charging unit that is disposed in the vicinity of the nipping region and downstream of the nipping region in the transport direction of the recording medium so as to face the first side of the recording medium and that charges particles;
• and
• a second charging unit that charges a second side of the recording medium to the opposite polarity to the charged particles after the recording medium passes through the nipping region.