Passport Photo Maker
Make a passport or visa photo at a published print size, in this tab. Pick the format and the frame becomes that size in pixels at the resolution you choose — 600 × 600 px for a 2 × 2 in photo at 300 dpi, 413 × 531 px for 35 × 45 mm. Drag the photo, scroll or use Zoom to scale it, then drag the two lines to the top of the head and the bottom of the chin: the page measures the head in millimetres against the range the format allows, reads the colour of the border, and writes the resolution into the JPEG header. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop a portrait photo here
or choose a file · JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or AVIF · up to 48 megapixels · or paste with Ctrl + V
Passport and visa formats · exact millimetres at 300 or 600 dpi · head measured against the published range · print sheet · no upload · no account · no watermark
Passport Photo Maker
A passport photo fails for one of two reasons: the head is the wrong size in the frame, or the file is the wrong size in pixels. Both are measurements, and this page makes them in front of you. Pick the format, and the frame becomes the exact print size at the resolution you choose. Drag the photo until the crown and chin sit on the two lines. The page reports the head in millimetres and as a share of the height, reads the colour of the border, and writes the resolution into the JPEG header. Then it can lay six or nine copies on a sheet you can print.
Nothing is uploaded. The photo is decoded, cropped and encoded by the browser in this tab.
A passport photo is a measurement before it is a picture
A portrait can be beautiful and still be rejected, because the requirement is not about the picture. It is four numbers:
- the print size, in millimetres;
- the resolution the file is written at, in dots per inch;
- the pixel size that follows from those two;
- the height of the head, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the crown, in millimetres.
For a United States 2 × 2 in photo at 300 dpi the frame is 600 × 600 px and the head has to span 25.4 to 34.9 mm, which is 300 to 412 px in that frame. A 12-megapixel phone photo carries far more pixels than that. The pixels are not the problem. The placement is.
Millimetres become pixels at one number
The same print size needs a different file at every resolution. At 300 dpi, one pixel covers 25.4 ÷ 300 = 0.0847 mm; at 600 dpi it covers half that.
| Format | Print size | Inches | Pixels at 300 dpi | Pixels at 600 dpi | Head range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 50.8 × 50.8 mm | 2 × 2 | 600 × 600 | 1200 × 1200 | 25.4–34.9 mm (50–69%) |
| United Kingdom | 35 × 45 mm | 1.38 × 1.77 | 413 × 531 | 827 × 1063 | 29–34 mm (64–76%) |
| Schengen visa | 35 × 45 mm | 1.38 × 1.77 | 413 × 531 | 827 × 1063 | 32–36 mm (71–80%) |
| Australia | 35 × 45 mm | 1.38 × 1.77 | 413 × 531 | 827 × 1063 | 32–36 mm (71–80%) |
| Canada | 50 × 70 mm | 1.97 × 2.76 | 591 × 827 | 1181 × 1654 | 31–36 mm (44–51%) |
| China visa | 33 × 48 mm | 1.30 × 1.89 | 390 × 567 | 780 × 1134 | 28–33 mm (58–69%) |
The head column is the part that differs most between countries. Canada allows a head that is 44 to 51 percent of the photo's height; the Schengen range is 71 to 80 percent. A crop that satisfies one will not satisfy the other, even when both files are 35 × 45 mm.
Two formats in that table share a print size but not a head range: the United Kingdom and the Schengen visa are both 35 × 45 mm, and their head ranges are 29–34 mm and 32–36 mm. The frame is identical. The picture inside it is not.
The head is the part that gets measured
The two orange lines in the frame are the measurement. Drag the upper one to the top of the crown, the lower one to the bottom of the chin, and the readout gives the span in millimetres plus the percentage of the frame height. The range for the chosen format sits next to it, and the readout says whether the head is inside it.
This page does not detect the face for you. A detector guesses landmarks, and the requirement is not a landmark: it is the distance from the chin to the crown. When a guess is wrong, nothing on screen says so. Lines you place yourself can be checked against the photo in front of you, and the millimetre figure that comes out is the same figure the photo will be judged on.
The United States specification adds a second constraint: the eyes have to sit 1 1/8 to 1 3/8 inches from the bottom edge, which is 28.6 to 34.9 mm, or 56 to 69 percent of the way up a 2-inch photo. If the head is inside its range but the eyes are not, move the photo, not the lines.
The file does not know how big it is
A JPEG stores pixels, not inches. A 600 × 600 file is 2 inches wide only if something else says so. That something is the JFIF header at the start of the file, which carries a unit flag and two density values.
Browsers leave it neutral. The canvas encoder writes density 1:1 with the unit flag at 0, which means "no physical size stated". A printer that reads that file sees 600 pixels and has to decide the paper size itself; the file has expressed no preference.
This page patches those fields after encoding: three values, five bytes, with the pixel data untouched. The result card reports how many bytes changed, and the header then reads 300 × 300 dpi. A 600 × 600 frame written at quality 92 came out at 13,314 bytes; the same frame at quality 85 was 10,584 bytes and at quality 75 it was 8,753. The print is still whatever the lab sets its printer to; the field is a statement of intent that print software may read, not an enforcement.
Six copies on a 4 × 6, and what one millimetre of gap costs
A sheet is a packing problem: how many copies of the photo fit on the paper, given a gap between them. The count is the floor of (paper + gap) ÷ (photo + gap) on each axis.
| Photo | 4 × 6 in, no gap | 4 × 6 in, 2 mm gap | 5 × 7 in, no gap | A4, no gap | A4, 2 mm gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50.8 × 50.8 mm (US) | 6 | 2 | 6 | 20 | 20 |
| 35 × 45 mm (UK, Schengen) | 6 | 6 | 9 | 36 | 30 |
| 33 × 48 mm (China) | 9 | 6 | 9 | 36 | 30 |
| 50 × 70 mm (Canada) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 16 |
The US row is the one to read twice. A 4 × 6 inch sheet at 300 dpi is 1200 × 1800 px, and two 600 px photos fill the width exactly. Add a 2 mm gap and the sheet fits one column instead of two, because 1200 + 6 is less than 2 × (600 + 6). Six copies become two. If the lab needs a gutter, print the 5 × 7 sheet instead: six copies fit there with an inch of paper to spare, and a 2 mm gap changes nothing.
The border is the check the page can run on the photo
Passport specifications ask for a plain, light background, and the border of the frame is where that shows. After the crop, the page samples the top edge and the upper part of both sides — 1,980 pixels in a 600 × 600 crop — averages the colour and reports the spread in brightness levels. The bottom edge is left out on purpose: in a passport crop it is shoulders, not background.
Two crops of the same portrait, one against a painted wall and one against a noisy background, read #e9e5dd with a spread of 4 levels and #e6e2db with a spread of 30. The first is a plain wall. The second is the same wall with texture the eye forgives and a print at passport size will not.
The readout is a colour and a number, not a verdict on whether the photo will be accepted. What it does tell you is whether the background is uniform enough to pass as plain, and what colour it actually is — which is the question a lab or a portal will ask when a photo comes back rejected for "background not white".
What this page will not do
It will not remove or replace the background. Cutting a person out of a photo needs a segmentation model, and a bad cut shows up as a halo around the hair that is worse than the original background. Use a plain wall, a sheet or a door, and the border readout will tell you whether it worked.
It will not straighten a tilted head, change clothes or smooth skin. Those are edits, and every edit moves the pixels the head measurement is being made against. If the photo needs them, do them first, then come back.
It will not detect the face, and it will not promise that a photo is accepted. The requirement belongs to the office you are applying to, and it changes. The ranges on this page are the published ones for the six formats listed; check the current rule for your document before you submit.
How to use this page
- Drop a portrait photo on the page, or paste one with Ctrl + V.
- Choose the format. The frame takes that print size at the resolution shown.
- Drag the photo to move it and use Zoom to scale it.
- Drag the two orange lines to the crown and the chin. Read the head figure against the range.
- Download the photo, or pick a print sheet and download that.
What each control does
Format sets the print size and the head range. Width and Height become editable when Custom is chosen. Resolution sets the pixels per inch written into the file: 300 dpi is the print standard, 600 dpi quadruples the pixel count for portals that ask for it. JPEG quality trades file size against the encoder's approximation. Zoom scales the photo inside the frame and can be typed as a percentage. Print sheet and Gap compute the copies that fit on 4 × 6, 5 × 7 or A4 paper at 300 dpi.
Why this page doesn't upload your photo
The photo is read with FileReader and drawn onto a canvas in this tab. The crop, the border sample and the JPEG encode all run in the same page, and the file you download is a blob built in memory. There is no request to make: open the Network panel, drop a photo, and watch the list stay empty apart from this page's own assets. Turn the connection off and the tool still produces the same bytes.
Questions that come up
Can I take my own passport photo at home? Yes, if the light is even and the background is plain. Stand a metre from a wall, face a window, and keep the phone level with your face. The part that fails at home is rarely the camera: it is the head being too small in the frame, which the lines on this page will show you before you print.
What size is a passport photo in pixels? It depends on the resolution. A 2 × 2 inch photo at 300 dpi is 600 × 600 px; at 600 dpi it is 1200 × 1200 px. A 35 × 45 mm photo is 413 × 531 px at 300 dpi. The millimetres are the requirement, the pixels follow from the dpi.
Why does my file say 300 dpi and the print shop still asks for a size? Because the dpi field is advice, not a guarantee. The print operator sets the paper size, and the same 600 × 600 file can be printed at 2 inches or at 8. Say the millimetres when you order.
How many 2 × 2 photos fit on a 4 × 6 print? Six, with no gap between them, because 4 inches is exactly two 2-inch photos and 6 inches is exactly three. Add a 2 mm gap and only two fit. A 5 × 7 sheet holds six with room to spare.
Does the background have to be white? Plain and light is the common rule, and white is the safest choice. Some countries accept light grey or light blue; a few require white specifically. The border readout tells you what colour your crop actually has, which is the number to compare against the rule.
Can I wear glasses in the photo? Many offices now refuse glasses, and the ones that allow them require no glare and no frame over the eyes. If the rule for your document is unclear, take the photo without glasses: it cannot fail for glare.
Is a phone photo good enough? Usually yes. A modern phone camera produces many more pixels than a 600 × 600 file needs, and the crop throws most of them away. What matters is even light, a plain background and a head that fills the frame the way the range asks.