Patent ID: 7059700

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus fir discharging ink supplied from an exchangeably mounted ink tank to a recording medium through a recording head to thereby perform recording, said ink jet apparatus being connectable to an external host, said ink jet apparatus comprising: operating means for operating the ink jet recording apparatus and for changing a setup, wherein said operating means includes on-line switching means for switching the state of connection to the host between an on-line state and an off-line state; remaining amount management means for managing a remaining amount of ink in the mounted ink tank; mode change means for switching between a first operating mode and a second operating mode when it is determined that following the consumption of ink, the remaining amount of ink in the ink tank managed by the remaining amount management means has reached zero, wherein in the first operating mode a recording operation using the recording head is inhibited after the remaining amount managed by the remaining amount management means has reached zero, and wherein in the second operating mode continuance of the recording operation is enabled regardless of the remaining amount managed by the remaining amount management means; and control means for, when performance of the recording operation is instructed in the second operating mode, permitting the performance of the recording operation after a user's manipulation through the operating means, wherein when the performance of the recording operation is instructed in the second operating mode, the control means sets the state of the connection to the host to the off-line state, and then permits the performance of the recording operation after the user manipulates the on-line switching means to change the state to the on-line state.