ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Now Print!

Okay, so you know how sometimes you draw a picture or write a story on your tablet or computer, and you want to have a real, physical copy of it? That's where printing comes in!

When you press the button that says "print," your device sends a message to a printer - which is like a special machine that knows how to turn computer stuff into paper stuff.

The printer then takes a piece of blank paper and starts putting words or pictures onto it, just like how you might draw with a crayon on a piece of paper. It does this by squirting tiny dots of ink onto the paper in a certain pattern, and this ends up making the letters or images you wanted.

Once the printer has put everything on the paper, it spits it out of a special slot for you to take and enjoy. And that, my young friend, is how printing works!