Secure server conversion
Passport Photo Resizer
Crop and resize a photograph to official passport or ID dimensions. Choose your country's size, drag to frame your head correctly, and download. Your photo is deleted from our server the moment the result is made — which matters here, since a passport photo is about as personal as a file gets.
Read the requirements section below before you rely on this. Official rules cover more than dimensions, and this tool cannot check the parts that get applications rejected.
Drag & drop your image here
Up to 20 MB per file
× → ×
Drag the selection to move it, drag a corner to resize it, or drag across the image to draw a new one.
Selection: × px
Step by step
How to crop an image in 4 steps
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Add your photo
Use the highest quality original you have — a phone photo taken against a plain wall in even light works well.
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Choose the crop ratio
Choose the crop ratio for your country, then drag across the image to frame your head. Get the head size right, not just the shape — see below.
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Pick the pixel size
Pick the pixel size from the presets, which are the physical dimensions at 300 DPI.
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Apply and download
If your application also has a file size limit, compress it to that limit afterwards.
Good to know
Cropping and composition
Passport photo specifications are unusual in that the dimensions are the easy part. Almost every rejection is about something else.
The typical official requirements, using the UK as an example — most countries are similar:
- Overall size — 35mm × 45mm. This tool handles it.
- Head height — the distance from chin to crown must be between 29mm and 34mm, roughly 70–80% of the frame. This is the most common reason photos are rejected, and it is decided entirely by how you crop.
- Head position — centred, facing straight at the camera, with a small margin above the hair.
- Background — plain, light, uniform, no shadows behind you.
- Expression — neutral, mouth closed, eyes open and clearly visible.
- Lighting — even, no glare on glasses, no shadows across the face.
- Recency — usually taken within the last month.
This tool checks none of those. It crops and resizes exactly as you tell it to. It cannot measure your head, judge your background, or tell you that your glasses are reflecting the flash. Software that claims to verify official compliance is generally overstating what it can do — and the consequence of trusting it is a rejected application and a lost fee.
What it does do is the mechanical part accurately: an exact ratio, an exact pixel size, and a crop you control precisely.
Why the pixel sizes look arbitrary
413 × 531 is 35mm × 45mm at 300 dots per inch. Official specifications are written in millimetres or inches because the photo may be printed, and 300 DPI is the standard print resolution. So the pixel dimensions are simply the physical size multiplied out.
If your application specifies pixels directly, use those instead — enter them in the width and height boxes rather than using a preset.
Quality
Keeping the result sharp
Getting the head size right is the part worth spending time on, because it is what most rejections turn on.
Aim for the head to fill roughly 70–80% of the frame height, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head — including hair, but not including hair that stands well above the scalp. Leave a small gap above the head and rather more below the chin.
A practical method: position your crop so the eyes sit a little above the middle of the frame, then adjust until the chin-to-crown distance looks like about three-quarters of the height. If in doubt, check your country's published diagram — most publish one with exact measurements.
On image quality:
- Start with the largest original you have. Cropping discards pixels, and a tight crop of a small photo leaves very little.
- Do not enlarge to reach the target. If your crop is smaller than the preset, the result will be soft. Retake the photo closer instead.
- Avoid heavy compression. If there is a file size limit, meet it with the target-size tool rather than by shrinking dimensions below the specification.
The output keeps your original format. For most official uploads JPG is expected; if you started with a PNG, convert it afterwards.
Common sizes
The presets cover the sizes most often needed. All are physical dimensions at 300 DPI:
- 35 × 45 mm (413 × 531 px) — UK, EU and Schengen, Australia, New Zealand and much of the world.
- 2 × 2 in (600 × 600 px) — United States and India. Note this is square, which is unusual and catches people out.
- 50 × 70 mm (591 × 827 px) — Canada, which is larger than most.
Requirements change, and some countries differ between passports, visas and ID cards. Check the official guidance for the specific document you are applying for rather than assuming.
Taking the photo
Most rejections are caused before any editing happens:
- Plain, light background. A white or cream wall. Stand a good arm's length away from it so you do not cast a shadow.
- Even, natural light. Facing a window is ideal. Avoid direct flash, which causes glare and hard shadows.
- Have someone else take it. A selfie at arm's length distorts facial proportions noticeably, and some authorities reject them for that reason.
- Camera at eye level, roughly two metres away, zoomed in rather than held close.
- Neutral expression, mouth closed, both eyes open and unobstructed.
- No hats or head coverings except for religious reasons, and even then the full face must be visible.
- Glasses are increasingly disallowed outright — check, and if in doubt, remove them.
File size limits
Many application portals cap uploads, often quite tightly — 100 KB is common, and some ask for under 50 KB. Do that after cropping and resizing, using the target-size tool, so the dimensions stay correct while the file shrinks.
Do not reduce the pixel dimensions to meet a size limit. The specification exists so the photo prints correctly, and an undersized image may be rejected even if it looks acceptable on screen.
Privacy
What happens to your file
This tool runs on our server, so it works the same on every phone and computer. Your file is uploaded, and this is exactly what happens to it:
- Stored outside the public web root under a random name, never under your file's name.
- Processed, with the original upload deleted immediately — whether it succeeded or failed.
- The result sits behind a signed link that only you receive, which stops working after 20 minutes, and the file is deleted the moment you download it.
- Anything never collected is deleted automatically within 30 minutes.
- The image itself is never logged or kept. If a conversion fails, we record the formats involved and the error — not the file.
- Camera metadata, including any GPS coordinates recording where a photo was taken, is removed from the result. Only the rotation needed to show the image the right way up is kept.
Questions & answers
Passport Photo: frequently asked questions
Will this guarantee my photo is accepted?
No, and be wary of any tool that says it will. Dimensions are the easy part; rejections are usually about head size, background, lighting or expression. This tool crops and resizes exactly as you tell it to — it cannot measure your head or judge your background. Check your country's published diagram for the details it cannot verify.
How big should my head be in the frame?
Roughly 70–80% of the frame height, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head. For the UK that is 29–34mm within a 45mm photo. This is the single most common reason photos are rejected, and it is decided entirely by how you crop.
Why is the UK preset 413 × 531 pixels?
Because that is 35mm × 45mm at 300 dots per inch. Official specifications are written in physical units since the photo may be printed, and 300 DPI is the standard print resolution. If your application specifies pixels directly, type those into the width and height boxes instead.
My application also has a file size limit. What order should I do things in?
Crop and resize first, then compress to the limit with the target-size tool. Never reduce the pixel dimensions to meet a size limit — the specification exists so the photo prints correctly, and an undersized image can be rejected even when it looks fine on screen.
Can I use a selfie?
Better not to. A photo taken at arm's length distorts facial proportions noticeably, and some authorities reject selfies for exactly that reason. Have someone photograph you from about two metres away with the camera at eye level, zoomed in rather than held close.
Is my photo uploaded?
Yes, so that it works the same on every phone. Because it is a picture of your face prepared for an official document, it is deleted the moment the result is made, the result is deleted as soon as you download it, and no one looks at it. Metadata is removed too, so the file does not carry the location where the photo was taken.
Keep going
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