What is a driver, from a computer standpoint? Ex: Why does a printer need a specific driver? Is there no standard?

Question

Last night, I tried to set up an older printer to a new laptop, but I kept running into driver issues. I’ve always dealt with that, but never understood what it was and why it was necessary.

In: 13

Answer 1

You can imagine it like a translator between people. Your printer is a person speaking Spanish, the pc is a person speaking Japanese and the driver is the translator person, so the 2 can talk and understand each other. So when you get a new pc it basically changed its language from Japanese to, let’s say, German and now the printer manufacturer updates the driver so it speaks also that, so that your old printer can still communicate with the newer pc.