How does a pixel value gets translated to print size? Just wondering what is the maximum printing size recommended from for example, a 12MP digital image without loosing details? Is there any way to convert pixel to ideal print size?
The pixel value is the R,G,B colour of an individual pixel.
What you are asking is what is the maximum print size for the pixel dimensions of a digital photographic file.
Printers have default or optimum printing resolution... Epson printers work best on multiple or sub-multiples of 360 pixels per inch, and for HP printers it is 300.
Choose a res from 72 to 1440 and work out the print size... or tell the print menu the size of your paper, and it will tell you what res it would print at to achieve that size.
Generally it is thought that...
720ppi is so good that the printer is producing more detail than the human eye can perceive,
360 is Excellent
240 is good
180 is adequate...
72 is awful
It depends on the quality of the file or pixels, and good files, particularly those from Anti-Aliasing filter free and/or multi-shot cameras can be enlarged or up-sampled to lower original camera pixels per print inch resolutions.
Doubtless someone will tell you that you can print any file to any size if you do not look at the picture too closely, but people use bigger cameras so that they can print bigger pictures (without the pictures looking awful close up) or so that they can do more to the picture in post-production, or so that they get a good file out of the camera so that they do not have to do so much work on the file in post production.