Printing Help

:o Hi hi,
I never had a digital camera before and I'm planning on buying a Cybershot P150.
I would like to know one thing, it's 7.2MP, 3072x2034 resolution so if i want to print a picture which was taken using the cam's max. resolution, on lets say for example a normal picture size (15x8?), a small size, what would I have to do? (the thing is that my mom insists on viewing pics on the paper. -_-). If I just print it on that resolution the picture will be huge, right? If I reduce the picture size would I lose quality or something? Please help me. Thanks
-Marki >_<

This might be a better question for the Digital Imaging forum. Printing is more of a digital imaging than a digital camera issue. But that's ok. I'm here to help, regardless.

There's always a lot of confusion about resolution, because there are different kinds of resolution. Images from a 7 megapixel camera will often display huge on the computer because monitor resolution is 72 dpi. That works out to about 42x28 inches. But if you print at 72 dpi, your prints will look crappy. Generally, print resolution is 300 dpi. If you convert your image file to 300 dpi, it will be about 10.25 x 6.75 inches. The nice thing is that most printers make it easier than that. Depending on your printer software, you can probably just tell your printer what print size you want and it will do the converting for you. Bottom line - you don't have anything to worry about. And if you have problems, just let us know and we'll help you sort them out.

Thanks for your reply, I'm sorry that I posted in the wrong forum hehe :D
There's just another thing that I would like to know, it might be obvious but I always get confused with it. As you said, I should just tell my printer in what resolution I want it to print my pic. But if I take pics at 7 megapixels, that means the picture will have more pixels per inch and so it will have more quality right? So basically that means that if I reduce the picture digitaly it won't lose any quality? (does it gain more quality? :confused: ) Please clarify these resolution issues I seem to have.
Thank you again,
-Mark :p

edit: (btw, pictures printed with glossy photopaper, do they last the same as those pictures the printing labs make out of the films we use in normal cameras?)

Thermal printers can be used for this purpose. These devices are great for printing photos and images. They create clear and rich images, ideal for printing small formats.