How does the printer grab only 1 sheet?

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How does a printer grab only 1 sheet at a time? The height of the sheet is always changing unless you add 1 sheet of paper to the stack everytime a sheet is printed out.

Laser printers adjust the tray internals, to push the paper up so that it hits the pickup assembly - which usually involves a pickup roller(s) and a sensor. This is a pretty general/vague description. I'm not sure how inkjet printers work, though.

Because there is more friction between the top sheet and the rubber rollers than between the top sheet and the sheet below it, if you want to be really specific. =)

but why is it so hard to do that with your fingers then?

The printer has a built-in tongue which licks its fingers before grabbing each sheet.

How is that when you turn pages in a book you only turn one at a time?

Oh!! I get it now!! You need two fingers for this to work. And you need to squeeze it hard.

Why do you think the paper is supposed to be pushed in all the way? It is possible to do things without the complexity of the human hand. Maximum sheets for a retail printer are about 50.

But seriously, make a pile of A4 paper and grasp the top sheet using your thumb and index finger. Regardless of how much pressure you apply, as long as the thumb remains stationary and only your finger moved back, you only take one sheet.

there are gremlins inside doing all the work, and from my experience, they can be moody

your printers need to have a word with my printer!

maybe they already have, it's a conspiracy

Doesn't it dry out over time?

When I worked in IT support people were forever complaining about printers because they jam and mess up occasionally but I've always been a bit in awe of them because they have to consistently manipulate a physical object that's usually less than 1mm thick.

It's amazing they work at all.

the spining brushes adhere to the paper, and gradually pull it out because paper is light wieght.

Small things are more susceptible to the forces of adhesion than are big things.

Thats why flypaper works on flies, but not for hunting deer.

They grab the little holes in the tear off guides down the margins and just move them along with little gears that have small spikes that land in every hole..