To suppress gloss in a black part where the developed amt. is large in a color photographic image with a small developing amt., and to obtain an image easily visible as a whole without irregular gloss.

In this image forming method, a color image is obtd. by overlapping toner images produced by developing an electrostatic latent image with toners of four colors of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. The gradient of gloss aY, aM, aC, and aBK for yellow, magenta, cyan and black, respectively, are controlled in such a manner that aY, aM and aC range 0.8a to 1.2a while aBK ranges 0.4a to 0.7a, wherein (a) is the gradient of gloss for the toner developing amt. (mg/cm2) defined by (aY+aM+aC)/3=a.