Patent ID: 7794043

Claim:
An ink jet recording head comprising: a large nozzle array including a plurality of ejection outlets for ejecting ink; and a small nozzle array including a plurality of ejection outlets each having an opening area smaller than an opening area of the ejection outlets of said large nozzle array, wherein said ink jet recording head is mountable to an ink jet recording apparatus which is capable of causing said ink jet recording head to eject ink for a purpose of maintenance of said ink jet recording head without image formation on a recording material, wherein said large nozzle array is supplied with light ink including yellow, light cyan or light magenta ink, and said small nozzle array is supplied with dark ink including cyan, magenta or black ink, and wherein, for the maintenance, the number of ejections of the dark ink is greater than the number of ejections of the light ink, and wherein, for the maintenance, a product of a volume of an ink droplet ejected from an ejection outlet of said large nozzle array and the number of ejections of the light color ink is substantially the same as a product of a volume of an ink droplet ejected from an ejection outlet of said small nozzle array and the number of ejections of the dark color ink.