Patent ID: 7722143

Claim:
An ink jet printing apparatus for printing an image on a printing medium by using a printing head including an ejection opening for ejecting ink and a replaceable ink tank which contains the ink for supply to the printing head, comprising: a maintenance unit which performs a maintenance process for discharging the ink from the printing head; a detector which detects a replacement of the ink tank; an obtaining unit which obtains information representing an amount of ink consumed from the ink tank; and a determining unit which determines a condition of the maintenance process to be performed after the replacement depending on detection of the replacement by the detector, wherein the determining unit determines the condition so that an amount of ink to be discharged from the printing head in the maintenance process in a case where the replacement of an in-use ink tank having a remaining amount less than a predetermined amount with a new ink tank is performed is more than that in a case where the replacement of an in-use ink tank having a remaining amount more than the predetermined amount with a new ink tank is performed, and wherein the remaining amount of the in-use ink tank is determined based on the information obtained by the obtaining unit.