Patent ID: 7163268

Claim:
An ink jet recording method which performs image recording by a top shooter type thermal ink jet system, comprising the steps of: heating ink with heaters to grow air bubbles until the air bubbles communicate with an atmosphere; and ejecting primary and subsidiary ink droplets above the heaters, a total ink ejection amount for a pixel being the sum of a primary ink droplet and one or more subsidiary ink droplets; wherein said one or more subsidiary ink droplets are ejected before the ink is replenished to predetermined liquid surface levels at which primary ink droplets are ejected after respective ones of said primary or subsidiary ink droplets were ejected and wherein a gradation in the total ink ejection amount is variably controlled by adjusting an amount of each of said one or more subsidiary ink droplets in accordance with a lapse of time after a previous primary or subsidiary ink droplet ejection to variably control a level to which said ink is replenished when each of said one or more subsidiary ink droplets is ejected.