Patent ID: 6962399

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 ink jet printer being adapted for reciprocating movement of said printhead along a main scan path, 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 a number of said plurality of address lines that is to be masked; selecting a variable subset of said plurality of address lines, wherein a quantity of address lines in said variable subset is equal to said number; 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 said number of said plurality of address lines.