Patent ID: 8777344

Claim:
A liquid ejection apparatus comprising: a liquid ejection head which includes ejection ports for ejecting liquid; a cap unit which is configured to take a sealed state where an ejection space facing the ejection ports is sealed from an exterior space and a non-sealed state where the ejection space is opened to the exterior space; a humidified air supply mechanism which includes a storing part configured to store humidifying liquid for generating humidified air, and which is configured to perform a humidifying operation of generating humidified air and supplying the humidified air into the ejection space at the sealed state; a discharge unit which is configured to discharge liquid from the ejection ports; a control unit which is configured to control the humidified air supply mechanism to perform the humidifying operation after controlling the cap unit to take the sealed state, and which is configured to control the discharge unit to perform a liquid discharge operation of discharging liquid from the ejection ports after controlling the cap unit to take the non-sealed state in response to receiving a printing command at a standby state after the humidifying operation; and a detection unit which is configured to detect whether the humidifying liquid is stored in the storing part, wherein after the cap unit takes the sealed state and until the humidified air supply mechanism starts the humidifying operation, when the detection unit detects that no humidifying liquid is stored in the storing part, the control unit is configured to control the discharge unit such that a liquid discharge amount from the ejection ports in the liquid discharge operation is larger than that of a case where the detection unit detects that the humidifying liquid is stored in the storing part, and wherein after the cap unit takes the sealed state and until the humidified air supply mechanism starts the humidifying operation, when the detection unit detects that no humidifying liquid is stored in the storing part, the control unit is configured to control the humidified air supply mechanism to prohibit the humidifying operation.