A memory stores manufacturing information including at least the number of refills, an electronic signature of the manufacturing information, and a first error-detecting code of the manufacturing information. The number of refills is the number of times that, after consumption of a liquid contained in the cartridge, the cartridge is refilled with the liquid.

A liquid cartridge includes a case, a liquid supply portion, a circuit board, a residual-amount detecting portion, a base surface, and a plate member. The residual-amount detecting portion includes an optical access portion accessible by light traveling in a left-right direction. The optical access portion has a portion positioned above and away from electrodes of the circuit board by a first distance in an attached posture. The plate member extends frontward from the base surface, and provides a light-shielding region and a light-transmissive region. The light-shielding region is positioned rearward of the electrodes and frontward of the residual-amount detecting portion. The light-transmissive region is positioned rearward of the light-shielding region and frontward of the residual-amount detecting portion. Each of the light-transmissive region and the light-transmissive region has a portion positioned above and away from the electrodes by the first distance in the attached posture.

A method for controlling a regenerated chip, a regenerated chip, and a regenerated ink cartridge are provided. The regenerated chip is electrically connected to a printer by means of a first data signal wire and a logic signal wire, and is electrically connected to an ink cartridge chip by means of a second data signal wire. The method for controlling a regenerated chip includes: detecting an operation command sent by the printer by means of the first data signal wire and the logic signal wire; and when it is detected that the operation command is not a selected operation command, sending a data signal to the ink cartridge chip by means of the second data signal wire, wherein the data signal instructs the ink cartridge chip to communicate with the printer.

An image forming apparatus includes a main casing, a cartridge, and a controller. The cartridge is attachable to the main casing. The cartridge includes a cartridge memory configured to store identification information. The controller is configured to perform a rewriting process to rewrite the identification information to information indicating that the cartridge is the normal cartridge, in a case where the controller receives a cancellation instruction to instruct to cancel the service contract and the identification information, which is stored in a cartridge memory of the cartridge attached to the main casing, indicates that the cartridge is the contract cartridge.

An example printing material cartridge includes a reservoir storing printing material to supply a printing apparatus and a storage medium storing process instructions for controlling the recirculation process in the printing apparatus.

In one embodiment a print liquid supply apparatus is provided to supply liquid to a liquid needle of a receiving station comprising a liquid container including an at least partially collapsible liquid reservoir an interface structure at a side of the container, including a liquid channel that includes a reservoir connecting portion that fluidically connects to the reservoir and a needle receiving portion to allow the liquid to flow from the reservoir to the needle; a liquid interface of the liquid channel adjacent the needle receiving portion and at a distance from the reservoir connecting portion, a front wall and/or edge adjacent the liquid interface including a push area which is disposed between the liquid interface and the container; and at least one key pen base and key pen protruding from the base in a direction parallel and opposite to the needle insertion direction; and a contact pad array next to the needle receiving liquid channel portion. In another example a sub-assembly of such apparatus is provided.

In some examples, a supply component for a printing device includes a memory device comprising a plurality of corrective data to produce a corresponding plurality of color tables each customized for a respective media type of a plurality of media types, wherein a respective corrective data of the plurality of corrective data corresponds to nodes of a reference color table for the printing device that is able to accept the plurality of media types for printing. The respective corrective data includes a plurality of residual values to transform the nodes of the reference color table to a customized color table for use with a selected media type of the plurality of media types.

Provided is a consumable chip and a communication method thereof. The method is adopted for a consumable chip including a first consumable MCU unit, a verification cryptographic operation unit and a second consumable MCU unit; the method includes: when the first consumable MCU unit is incompatible with the printer, the first consumable MCU unit activating the second consumable MCU unit to execute a second consumable chip core processing flow, and calling the verification cryptographic algorithm function program of the verification cryptographic operation unit to calculate a new verification password; after the first consumable MCU unit inquires that the second consumable MCU unit has completed the second consumable chip core processing flow, the first consumable MCU unit reading the new verification password and sending to the printer, the new verification password is received by the printer to achieve compatibility between the first consumable MCU unit and the printer.

In some examples, a print cartridge includes a memory device comprising quantized coefficients derived from a lossy compression, at a selected step size, of a difference color table including a plurality of difference nodes in which each difference node represents a difference value that is a difference of a value of a node of a color table and a value of a corresponding node of a reference table, the quantized coefficients useable to produce a reconstructed difference color table including a first set of difference nodes each representing a difference value that is within an error threshold at the selected step size, and a second set of difference nodes each representing a difference value that is outside an error threshold at the selected step size. The memory device further comprises corrective information to correct the second set of difference nodes of the reconstructed difference color table.

In some examples, a print cartridge includes a memory device comprising quantized coefficients derived from a compression of a difference table including a plurality of difference nodes in which each difference node represents a value that is a difference of a value of a node of a color table and a value of a corresponding node of a reference table, the quantized coefficients useable to produce a reconstructed difference table, and a plurality of residue nodes in which each residue node represents a value that is a difference of a value of a node of the color table and a value of a corresponding node of the reconstructed difference table.