Patent ID: 8011298

Claim:
An ink supply system, comprising: an ink supply means which supplies ink in an ink container to an ink fountain where the ink is temporarily stored between a first point in time when the ink is discharged from the ink container and a second point in time when the ink is supplied to an inner peripheral surface of a printing drum; an ink amount detecting means which outputs an ink supply starting signal when the amount of ink in the ink fountain supplied by the ink supply means becomes smaller than a predetermined first threshold value and an ink supply terminating signal when the amount of ink in the ink fountain becomes not smaller than a predetermined second threshold value; a time measuring means which measures an elapsed time from the time the ink supply starting signal is output from the ink amount detecting means; an empty ink container recognizing means which recognizes that the ink container is exhausted when the elapsed time measured by the time measuring means becomes longer than a predetermined inkless time before the ink supply terminating signal is output; and an ink supply control means which starts the ink supply means supplying the ink in response to the ink supply starting signal and stops the ink supply means from supplying the ink in response to the ink supply terminating signal, wherein the improvement comprises that the empty ink container recognizing means reads out numeric information from a storage means which is provided on the ink container to store numeric information for setting an inkless time corresponding to the kind of ink in the ink container, and sets the inkless time on the basis of the numeric information.