Low energy solid ink jet imaging apparatus

A printhead provides selective heating to a supply of molten ink within an ink flow channel. The printhead is adapted to be in electrical communication with a controller and programmed to determine ink required by a print job. Based on the determined ink required by the print job, the controller accordingly provides selective heating to the printhead. The printhead includes an ink inlet, a nozzle in fluid communication with the ink inlet, and an ink flow channel having a length and extending between the ink inlet and the nozzle. A molten ink supply from a solid ink supply retaining device is received by the ink inlet and ejected from the nozzle on a print medium. A plurality of heating zones is also disposed along the length and adjacent to the ink flow channel to provide heating to the molten ink supply adjacent to each of the plurality of heating zones.