The electromagnet keeps the pins in place until a charge is made to a coil wrapped around the print wire, momentarily eliminating the magnetization and allowing the pin to spring forward. The pins print a pattern, or matrix, of dots on the paper, which creates letters and other characters as the print head moves across the page on a track. Each time the print head scans the page, it prints a slightly lower part of the line, until all the characters are completely formed.