An image forming method including: applying a pre-treatment liquid onto a coating layer provided on at least one surface of a support of a recording medium, jetting an inkjet ink onto the coating layer, onto which the pre-treatment liquid has been applied, so as to form an image, and applying or jetting a post-treatment liquid onto the coating layer, onto which the inkjet ink has been jetted, so as to form a transparent protective layer on the coating layer, wherein the inkjet ink contains the water-dispersible colorant, a water-soluble organic solvent, a surfactant, a penetrant and water, and wherein an amount of pure water transferred into the recording medium, provided with the coating layer, measured at a contact time of 100 ms with a dynamic scanning liquid absorptometer is 1 ml/m2 to 10 ml/m2, and the pre-treatment liquid contains a water-soluble aliphatic organic acid.