The pun is probably not in the best of taste. But since the best efforts of turning ink cartridges into bombs failed and the presence of such cartridges on flights has now been banned in many countries, its one that shouldn’t be causing offence to anyone anytime soon.
However, it does have an interesting parallel. Whilst the manufacturers of printers might not be planning on carrying out atrocities any time soon, quite often the prices they charge for their ink cartridges feels like it should be criminal. Many will charge more for a full pack of cartridges than they do for an entire printer with all its cartridges and so straight away you get the feeling something a little fishy is going on.
However, you don’t have to buy the original cartridges. No matter what you may have heard about dodgy ink ruining perfectly good printers, you will only run into this problem if you buy compatibles from disreputable sources. The real compatible cartridges will have been meticulously created to ensure they not only do not cause your printer any harm, but that the colours will mix perfectly with the originals to create the exact same print quality as a full set of originals would.
In fact the only difference with a compatible ink is that it hasn’t been made by the original manufacturer of the printer. Other than that the quality will be equal to or in some cases better than the originals. Even if there are threats of voided warranties this is not something that can be enforced and doing so would actually be illegal on their part.
So whilst they might not be carrying out atrocities, don’t let the printer manufacturers get away with criminal prices. Buy compatible instead and see just how cheap printing can be.