Printing apparatus and method for determining amount of printing material

摘要

A printing apparatus and method for detecting the amount of a printing material in a detachable printing material container comprised of a piezoelectric element and a memory in which frequency information is stored. The printing apparatus further comprises an acquiring unit that acquires the frequency information from the memory; a supplying unit that supplies a driving signal to be used for driving the piezoelectric element based on the frequency information of a first driving signal having a first frequency and a second driving signal having a second frequency that is different from the first frequency; a detecting unit that detects a response signal in response to the vibration of the piezoelectric element; a measuring unit that measures vibration frequency contained in the response signal; and a determining unit that determines the amount of the printing material contained in the printing material container based on the measured vibration frequency.