Importance

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Abstract

The invention described in the specification relates to an ink jet printer with multiple print heads that allows for the less restrictive installation of print head cartridges. The print head carriers are designed so that any of a variety of different types of print head cartridges can be inserted into any of the print head carriers. When image data is received, the ink jet printer's processor determines the appropriate type of print head cartridge that should be used to print the image data. Information electronically stored on the print head cartridges in the form of a read-only memory (ROM), bar code, or optical LED's, identifies the type of each print head cartridge. The printer processor examines this identification information on the installed print head cartridges to determine if one of the print head carriers contains the desired type of print head cartridge. If the desired type of print head cartridge is located, the printer processor configures the printer itself to print with the desired cartridge in the particular print head carrier location in which the desired cartridge was found. If the printer cannot locate the desired type of print head cartridge in any of the multiple print head carriers, a error message is displayed informing the user that the proper print head cartridge is not installed.

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First Claim