Certain examples relate to mixing and/or supply cartridges for printing apparatus. One example implementation includes a reservoir to receive printing material from a printing apparatus and to return the received printing material to the printing apparatus. A storage medium stores a reservoir printing material level parameter indicative of the amount of printing material in the reservoir; a recirculation cycle counter indicative of the number of recirculation events experienced by the cartridge; a maximum recirculation cycle parameter indicative of the maximum number of recirculation events that may be experienced by the cartridge.

An information processing device may acquire, from each of a plurality of printers, remaining amount information related to a remaining amount of colorant in the printer and display a remaining amount screen which includes remaining amount objects each corresponding to respective one of the plurality of printers using a plurality of the acquired remaining amount information. A first-type remaining amount object corresponding to a first-type printer including a tank may include a first cartridge object and a tank object. A second-type remaining amount object corresponding to a second-type printer not including a tank may include a second cartridge object. In a predetermined direction, a position of the tank object corresponding to an unprintable remaining amount in the first-type remaining amount object and a position of the second cartridge object corresponding to the unprintable remaining amount in the second-type remaining amount object may be same as each other.

A printing device includes a printing unit configured to use ink stored in an ink cartridge to perform printing on a medium, a remaining amount detector configured to detect a remaining amount of the ink stored in the ink cartridge, a maintenance unit configured to perform maintenance on the printing unit, and a display unit configured to perform predetermined notification regarding either replacement of the ink cartridge or refilling of the ink cartridge with the ink. Either the printing device or a server device includes a selector configured to select either the maintenance to be performed or the predetermined notification based on the remaining amount of the ink when an amount of the ink used for a predetermined time period is equal to or smaller than a defined amount based on information on the amount of the ink used.

Memory provided in an ink cartridge attached to a printing apparatus includes: a storage section in which ink amount information about an amount of stored ink and threshold information about a threshold of the amount of the ink are stored; and a processing section that performs processing based on information received from the printing apparatus and information stored in the storage section, in which when receiving, from the printing apparatus, empty-ink information indicating that the ink cartridge is in an unusable state, the processing section performs comparing processing of comparing the ink amount information with the threshold information, when a result of the comparing processing satisfies a predetermined writing condition, the processing section writes the empty-ink information to the storage section, and when the result does not satisfy the writing condition, the processing section does not write the empty-ink information to the storage section.

Certain examples relate to mixing and/or supply cartridges for printing apparatus. One example implementation includes a reservoir to receive printing material from a printing apparatus and to return the received printing material to the printing apparatus. A storage medium stores a reservoir printing material level parameter indicative of the amount of printing material in the reservoir; a recirculation cycle counter indicative of the number of recirculation events experienced by the cartridge; a maximum recirculation cycle parameter indicative of the maximum number of recirculation events that may be experienced by the cartridge.

An apparatus controller performs: updating a number of mounting stored in an apparatus memory when a new consumable is mounted on an image processing apparatus; updating a life stored in the apparatus memory in response to execution of image processing; and transmitting, at a particular timing, the number of mounting and the life to a server. A server controller performs: in response to receiving the number of mounting and the life, not placing an order for the new consumable when the number of mounting is larger than a number of orders or the life is longer than or equal to a particular value, and placing the order for the new consumable when the number of mounting is smaller than or equal to the number of orders and the life is shorter than the particular value; and when the order is placed, updating the number of orders in a server memory.

An information processing system includes a storage portion, a reception portion, and a processing portion. The storage portion stores a learned model obtained by performing machine learning on a replacement condition of a print head based on a data set in which nozzle surface image information obtained by photographing a nozzle surface of the print head and replacement necessity information representing replacement necessity of the print head or a replacement timing of the print head are associated with each other. The reception portion receives the nozzle surface image information. The processing portion outputs the replacement necessity information of the print head based on the received nozzle surface image information and the learned model.

An image forming apparatus, having a cartridge detachably attached to the image forming apparatus and including a first compartment configured to store a colorant, a container configured to be connected with the cartridge and including a second compartment configured to store the colorant flowing from the cartridge, and a display configured to display a first object indicating a first remainder amount and a second object indicating a second remainder amount in a single screen, is provided. The first remainder amount is a remainder amount of the colorant stored in the first compartment, and the second remainder amount is a remainder amount of the colorant stored in the second compartment.

Systems, methods, software for monitoring usage of a recording medium in an image forming apparatus. In one embodiment, a usage monitor receives a raster image, and identifies thresholds that distinguish different intensity levels reproduced by different drop sizes of the recording material. The usage monitor identifies a set of pixel values for a block of pixels from the raster image, performs a vectorized comparison of the set of pixel values to each of the thresholds to generate sets of comparison bits, determines a number of set bits in each of the sets of comparison bits, and updates a threshold counter for each of the thresholds based on the number of set bits. The usage monitor may then compute drop counts for different drop sizes based on the threshold counter for each of the thresholds.

In an image forming apparatus, a controller is configured to: obtain conformance information, for each of at least one color, representing each container conforming to the image forming apparatus; obtain usage information related to a relationship between the total number of recording media on which images are formed within a past particular period and a total amount of a colorant used within the past particular period; based on the obtained usage information, calculate a first initial formable number for each of the at least one color which represents the total number of recording media on which images are respectively formable using the colorant with a particular initial containing amount; and display a detailed-information screen containing conformance detailed information for each of the at least one color. The obtained conformance information and the first initial formable number are associated with each other in the conformance detailed information.