You should get a message that there is about X% of ink left in your cartridge. You can change the cartridge then or keep going until it runs out of ink. I just let my run out of ink and clean the ink lines and load a new cartridge ink. Do a nozzle check and go back to printing. yeah I know that I ruin a shirt sometimes, but that is why I order 1 or 2 extra shirts in case something happens.