Disclosed is a photoreceptor comprising a cylindrical substrate and a photosensitive layer. The substrate wherein the cylindrical substrate has a cylindricity of 5 to 40 .mu.m, and the photoreceptor satisfies the relation of 0<(PWS/P.sup.2)<5.0.times.10.sup.-4 mm.sup.-1, wherein PWS is an average value of power spectrum values of regular reflection light amount in a region of a space frequency from 0 to 2 mm.sup.-1 measured at the wave length of imagewise exposing light to the photoreceptor, and P is an average value of reflection light at the measuring point of the photoreceptor.An image forming method employing the photoreceptor is also disclosed, which comprises developing a latent image formed on the photoreceptor, with a developer comprising a toner including toner particles having a variation coefficient of shape coefficient of not more than 16%.