How to make passport size photos at home: sizes, background and printing
The common passport and ID photo sizes, what a good photo looks like, and how to prepare an exact-size photo and a print sheet from a picture you took yourself.
Passport, visa, PAN card, exam and job forms all want a small photo in a precise size. Studios charge for it and make you wait. With a decent picture taken at home you can prepare an exact-size photo and even a print sheet of copies yourself. This guide covers common sizes, what makes a photo acceptable, and how to prepare one.
Common photo sizes
| Use | Typical size |
|---|---|
| UK, Schengen countries, Australia, most ID cards and exam forms | 35 × 45 mm |
| India passport | 35 × 45 mm (check the current Passport Seva instructions for the online upload size) |
| US passport and visa; Indian e-visa and OCI | 2 × 2 inch (51 × 51 mm) |
| Indian PAN card | 25 × 35 mm |
| China | 33 × 48 mm |
| Canada | 50 × 70 mm |
Always check the official instructions. Requirements differ by country, by form and sometimes by the year. Online forms may also ask for exact pixel dimensions and a file size limit instead of millimetres, and printed photos often have rules about the background, head size and glasses.
What a good photo looks like
Rules vary, but almost all identity photos share these points:
- Plain, light background. A white or off-white wall, with no shadows behind you. Software cannot reliably fix a busy background, so get this right when you take the picture.
- Face straight on, neutral expression, eyes open and looking at the camera, mouth closed.
- Even lighting. Face a window in daylight. Avoid a flash, a lamp on one side, or glare on glasses.
- Head size. The head, from chin to top of hair, usually fills roughly 70 to 80 percent of the photo’s height.
- No filters. Turn off any beauty mode, and no heavy editing.
- Have someone else take it, at eye level, from about a metre or two away so the face is not distorted.
Prepare the photo in four steps
- Open the Passport Photo Maker and choose your picture. A HEIC from an iPhone works too.
- Pick the size from the list, or choose Custom size and enter millimetres, centimetres, inches or pixels.
- Drag the picture and use the zoom slider until your face lines up with the guide: the oval for the head and the line for the eyes. The guide is only a help and is not saved in the photo.
- Click Download single photo. The file is saved at exactly the size you chose, at 300 DPI.
The tool does not remove or replace your background. The background colour setting only fills any empty area if you zoom out. That is why the plain wall behind you matters.
If the form has a size limit in KB
Tick “Keep the file under a size limit” before downloading, and type the maximum. The tool lowers the JPG quality just enough while keeping the exact pixel dimensions. For forms that ask for pixels, such as 200 × 230, choose Custom size and set the unit to pixels. See also how to reduce an image to a size in KB.
Print a sheet of copies
Choose a paper size (4 × 6 inch, 5 × 7 inch or A4) and how many copies you want, then download the print sheet. It lays the photos out in a neat grid with thin cutting lines, so one 4 × 6 inch print gives you up to eight 35 × 45 mm photos. Take the file to a photo lab or print it on photo paper at home.
- Print at actual size (100%). Settings like “fit to page” or “scale to fit” will make the photos the wrong size.
- Use glossy or matt photo paper. Plain paper looks dull and may be refused.
- Cut along the thin lines with a ruler and a sharp blade, and check one photo against the required size.
Before you submit
- Compare the size against the instructions once more.
- Check that the face is sharp and the background is clean on a zoomed-in view.
- Keep the original picture and the finished file in case the form asks you to upload again.
Your photo stays on your device throughout, which matters for an identity picture. See how in-browser tools keep files private.