Patent ID: 7735957

Claim:
A suction recovery method in an ink jet printing apparatus, in which ink is supplied from an ink storage section via an ink flow path to a printing head, the ink storage section and the printing head have therebetween a filter, and the printing head has a plurality of nozzles having different ejection opening diameters, wherein an ejection opening face of the printing head is capped with a cap to cause a negative pressure in the cap to suck ink in the printing head, said method comprising: a first suction step for sucking ink with a first target negative pressure; a second suction step for sucking ink, after said first suction step, with a second target negative pressure having an absolute value lower than an absolute value of the first target negative pressure; and a third suction step for sucking ink, after said second suction step, with a third target negative pressure having an absolute value higher than the absolute value of the first target negative pressure, wherein an absolute value of a negative pressure in said second suction step is increased to the second target negative pressure with an increase rate that is lower than an increase rate at which an absolute value of a negative pressure in said first suction step increases to the first target negative pressure, and an absolute value of a negative pressure in said third suction step is increased to the third target negative pressure with an increase rate that is higher than the increase rate at which the absolute value of the negative pressure in said first suction step increases to the first target negative pressure.