Patent ID: 7258411

Claim:
A method of informing a user of an ink jet printer of the end of life of a consumable, said consumable supplying ink to a printhead, said printhead including a plurality of ink ejection nozzles and an associated plurality of ink jetting actuators, each of said plurality of ink jetting actuators being addressable, said printhead including a plurality of address lines for facilitating selection of one or more of said plurality of ink jetting actuators, said method comprising the steps of: defining a notice threshold that is associated with a corresponding amount of ink remaining in said consumable; providing control logic for selectively controlling said plurality of address lines; determining whether said amount of ink remaining in said consumable has reached said notice threshold; and upon reaching said notice threshold, reducing an image density of images formed by said printhead by selectively masking at least one of said plurality of address lines, wherein said notice threshold is one of a plurality of thresholds, each of said plurality of thresholds having associated therewith a respective corresponding amount of ink remaining, wherein said image density of images formed by said printhead is progressively reduced by progressively increasing a number of said plurality of address lines that are masked as each of said plurality of thresholds are sequentially reached.