Patent ID: 8038254

Claim:
An ink set comprising: an ink composition, and a maintenance liquid to be applied to an ink jet head and not to a recording medium, wherein the ink composition comprises a pigment (i); the maintenance liquid comprises one or more solvents (ii) having a solubility parameter value of 27.5 or less; the content of the one or more solvents (ii) is 50 weight % or more with respect to a total solvent content of the maintenance liquid; the pigment (i) is dispersed in the ink composition with a pigment dispersant (iii); the ink composition further comprises a polymer particle (iv); and a ratio of the solid content of the pigment (i) relative to the sum of the solid content of the pigment dispersant (iii) and the solid content of the polymer particle (iv), in terms of weight, is 1 or less.