Patent ID: 7600835

Claim:
An ink tank, for containing an ink to be supplied to a printing apparatus, comprising storing means for storing information concerning a remaining amount of the ink, wherein said storing means stores the information concerning the remaining amount of the ink including a range of an amount of the ink including a standard amount of the ink and an extra amount of the ink, information on the standard amount of the ink is used by the printing apparatus as information on a usable amount of the ink, the standard amount of the ink at a start of an initial use of the ink tank corresponding to a total predetermined usable amount of the ink contained in the ink tank at an initial state of the ink tank, information on the extra amount of the ink is used by the printing apparatus as information on an amount of the ink corresponding to an amount of the ink to be used by the printing apparatus when an operation for using an excess amount of the ink over the standard amount of the ink is executed by the printing apparatus, the extra amount of the ink being larger than an amount corresponding to a maximum variance in the usable amount of the ink, the information on the extra amount of the ink is updated according to an amount of the ink used by the printing apparatus after the standard amount of the ink at the start of the initial use of the ink tank is used, and wherein the information concerning the remaining amount of the ink includes information about a remainder obtainable by deducting an amount of the ink to be used for operation of the printing apparatus using the ink from the sum of the standard amount of the ink and the extra amount of the ink.