Passport Photo Size Guide: 35×45 mm and How to Make One at Home

Passport photo rules look fussy until you understand what they are for: a machine has to find your face in the picture and measure it. Every rule about size, background and expression exists to make that measurement reliable.

Once you know the numbers, making a compliant photo at home takes about three minutes.

The standard sizes

Two things follow from that table. First, always confirm the size on the issuing authority's own website — a travel agent's blog post is not a source. Second, work at 300 dpi if the photo will be printed and 150 dpi is fine if it will only be uploaded.

Head size is the rule people fail

Nearly every rejected photo fails on head size rather than on image dimensions. The common requirement is that the head — chin to the top of the hair — takes up between 70 and 80 per cent of the frame height, with a small gap above the hair.

In practice that means standing closer than feels natural. A photo taken at arm's length with your whole upper body visible will be rejected even if the file dimensions are perfect. Crop in until your head fills most of the frame.

Taking the photo at home

1. Find a plain wall in white or very light grey. A painted interior wall works; a patterned curtain or a door with a handle in shot does not.
2. Stand about 50 cm from the wall, not against it. The gap prevents a hard shadow behind your head, which is the second most common rejection reason.
3. Use daylight from a window in front of you, not behind. Avoid direct sun, which makes you squint and casts harsh shadows on one side of the face.
4. Have someone else take it from about 1.5 metres with the phone's main camera. Selfies distort facial proportions because the lens is too close, and some authorities specifically reject them.
5. Look straight at the lens, neutral expression, mouth closed, both ears roughly visible, eyes open and clearly visible.

What gets photos rejected

• Glasses. Many countries, including the UK and the US, now ban them outright in passport photos. Take them off — it removes the risk entirely.
• Shadows on the face or on the background behind the head.
• Smiling. A neutral expression is required almost everywhere.
• Hair across the eyes or a head covering that obscures the face outline. Religious head coverings are allowed as long as the full face from chin to forehead is visible.
• Filters, beauty mode or retouching. Turn off any automatic skin smoothing on your phone camera before taking the picture.
• Old photos. Most authorities require one taken within the last six months.

Printing a sheet at a photo shop

Printing a single 35 × 45 mm photo costs the same as printing a full 6 × 4 inch print, so lay several copies onto one sheet and cut them yourself. The tool above does this in one click — it arranges as many copies as fit, with faint cutting lines, ready to hand to any print shop.

If the application is online

Digital submissions usually come with a file size limit as well as dimension rules, and the two can pull in opposite directions. Get the crop right first, then compress to the size the form demands.

Keep the uncompressed version. If the application is rejected and you need to resubmit at a different size, you will want the original rather than a compressed copy of a compressed copy.

Frequently asked questions