Prepare passport and visa photos with cited rules, without uploading

1 Choose the photograph

Any picture your browser can open. A phone photograph taken against a plain wall, in daylight, from about a metre and a half away is what most of these rules were written around — and it is read straight off your disk, not sent anywhere.

Drop a photo here or click to browse — one photograph, JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF or anything else your browser can open

2 Pick the country and the document

Every figure below is the published requirement, transcribed from the authority named under it. Nothing about this list is guessed at, and nothing about it is fetched — it is two tables, src/specs.js for the figures and src/sources.js for where each one came from, served with the page.

Country

Document

3 Mark the face, and check the framing

The crown, the chin and each pupil. Those four points are the whole of what a rule measures, so the crop is taken from wherever they end up — drag any that landed wrong, then press Fit the box. Finding them reads the picture itself: the edge of your head against the wall behind it, and the darker patches where eyes are. There is no model in it and nothing is fetched, and it is a starting position rather than a verdict, which is why it is yours to correct and why the panel below says which of the four it could not measure.

The panel beside the photograph is the crop itself, at the shape the rule asks for and with nothing drawn over it. It is what the file will look like, so a framing that is wrong is wrong there before it is downloaded.

Choose a photograph and the crop box appears here.

4 The background

Read from a band across the top of the crop and down each side, above the shoulders — the parts of the frame that ought to be nothing but background. Measured in CIE Lab rather than in RGB, because two greys forty RGB units apart are indistinguishable and forty units of blue is a different colour.

5 Save it

Print resolution

Sheet to print on

ICAO standard Any biometric travel document Machine-readable capture The ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm frame is what most of the world issues against, and 70-80 per cent head height with the eye line between half and three-fifths of the way up is the geometry every specification below is a variation of. Doc 9303 also asks for at least 90 pixels between the centres of the eyes in the stored image, which a ⁦413 x 531⁩ crop of a modern phone photograph clears comfortably. United States Passport and green card Online photo upload Square, and the only square passport photograph in wide use: ⁦2 x 2⁩ inches, which is ⁦51 x 51⁩ mm. The head may sit anywhere from 25 to 35 mm, a far wider window than the ICAO rule, and the eye line is measured from the bottom edge rather than as a proportion. The upload rule is a file size and nothing else now: 54 KB to 10 MB, as a JPEG, PNG or HEIC. The pixel size and the 240 KB ceiling it used to state are both gone, and so is the eye line - the square written here is the printed ⁦2 x 2⁩ inches at 300 dpi, and a larger square inside the band is just as acceptable. Diversity Visa lottery entry Entrant Status Check upload The same photograph as the passport rule above, but the entry form takes one size and one size only: exactly ⁦600 x 600⁩ pixels, at most 240 KB. An entry rejected for its photograph is not corrected, it is discarded, which is why this one is worth getting exactly right rather than approximately. United Kingdom Passport Digital photo for an online application The head is measured chin to crown and must be between 29 and 34 mm - notably shorter than the ICAO band, so a photo cropped to the ICAO rule can be refused here for having too large a head. The digital rule has a floor as well as a ceiling: under 50 KB the upload is refused for being too small. Schengen area Visa application The common visa format used by every Schengen consulate: ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm with the face filling 70 to 80 per cent of the height, which is 32 to 36 mm. Consulates differ on what they will accept as a background. Plain light grey is refused by nobody; a white wall with a shadow on it is refused by most. Germany Passport and identity card The Bundesdruckerei photo template asks for a face height of 32 to 36 mm in a ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm frame, with the eyes in the upper third. Since 2025 the photograph is normally captured at the issuing office or sent to it electronically by a photographer, so a print made here is for the applications that still take one. Canada Passport The odd one out on shape: ⁦50 x 70⁩ mm, which is taller and narrower in proportion than anything else here, so a crop made for another country will not fit it. Face height is 31 to 36 mm measured chin to crown. Canada publishes no eye line, so the band shown here is the one that follows from the head sitting centred in the frame; treat it as guidance rather than as a rule. The photographer must print the date and the studio name on the back, which is not something any tool can do for you. Australia Passport A plain, light-coloured background with the face 32 to 36 mm from chin to crown in a ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm print. Two prints are asked for with a paper application, which is what the sheet export below is for. India Passport Passport Seva asks for a ⁦2 x 2⁩ inch photograph on a plain white background, the same frame the United States uses. A ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm print is what most Indian forms mean by "passport size", and it is a separate entry in this list - the two are not interchangeable. Passport-size print for a form What a bank, a college or a government form means when it asks for a "passport size photo" to be pasted on: ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm, white background, head and shoulders. No authority publishes a head-height band for this, so the ICAO one is applied and shown as guidance. Nothing measures these with a ruler. IBPS online form photo Online application photo The cited IBPS CRP PO/MT XIII notice prefers ⁦200 x 230⁩ pixels and requires a JPEG between 20 and 50 KB. This preset writes that preferred size. It is an example from that examination notice; read the current notice for your own application before using it. The head-and-shoulders framing is described in words rather than measured, so the bands here are guidance drawn from the sample images on the forms. There is no print size, because there is nothing to print: this is a file for a web form. The sheet export is switched off for it. IBPS online form signature Online application signature A signature in black ink on white paper. The cited IBPS notice prefers ⁦140 x 60⁩ pixels and requires a JPEG between 10 and 20 KB. This preset writes that preferred size; check your current application notice for its own requirements. The head and eye overlay is switched off for this one. What is checked instead is that the paper is light, that there is ink on it, and that the ink is not so faint the form will read it as blank. A ⁦140 x 60⁩ crop of a signature is 8400 pixels. Reaching 10 KB is the hard part of this specification, not staying under 20 - see the padding note on the page. China Passport and visa Online visa application upload A ⁦33 x 48⁩ mm frame, which is narrower than the ⁦35 x 45⁩ used almost everywhere else, with the head 28 to 33 mm from chin to crown. The upload has a floor as well as a ceiling - 40 KB to 120 KB at exactly ⁦354 x 472⁩ pixels, which is that same frame at 272 dpi. Japan Passport A ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm print with the face 34 mm from chin to crown, give or take 2 mm, and 4 to 6 mm of clear space above the head. The clearance above the head is stated as its own rule here rather than being implied by the head height, which is why the eye band shown is guidance. Anywhere else Type the numbers yourself Whatever the form asks for Every figure on this one is editable. Put in what the form in front of you says, and the overlay, the print and the file-size search all follow it. It starts on the ICAO geometry, because a country not on the list above is far more likely to be using that than anything else. One country matches. {n} countries match. Nothing matches that. Try the country’s own name for itself, or pick “Anywhere else” and type the figures in. ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ mm ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ px {print} · {upload} eyes chin {title} Download France Italy Netherlands Spain Ireland Poland Passport Passport and identity card Passport, identity card and driving licence The background reads {hex}, which is white or near enough to it — and this rule turns a white background down. Plain white or light grey plain white or light grey Either one passes. What is being measured is the wall rather than the paper, and an evenly lit white wall photographs light grey anyway, which is why both are on the list. White, light grey or light blue white, light grey or light blue Any of the three, as long as it is one flat tone across the whole frame. Light blue is on the list because it separates fair hair from the background, which is the job the rule is really doing. White, light grey or cream white, light grey or cream Any of the three. Cream reads as a warm off-white; what fails is not the shade but a wall with a shadow, a texture or a door frame in it. Light grey or light blue — not white light grey or light blue, and not white The only rule here that refuses a colour rather than asking for one. A white background is turned down outright, so the usual advice about standing against a white wall is the wrong advice for this one. This rule measures the head to the top of the skull, with the hair left out of it. The dots here find the top of the hair, because that is what a photograph has in it, so on a full head of hair the measurement reads high — aim at the lower half of the band. No head-height band is published for this one, so the ICAO figures are shown in its place and are never marked as a failure. Frame it the way the rule describes in words and the numbers follow. No head-height band is published for this one, and its frame is not the usual one, so ICAO’s figures do not carry over. The band shown is a loose one read out of what the rule says in words; it is guidance and is never marked as a failure. No eye line is published, so the band shown is where the eyes fall on a head sitting centred in the frame. It is guidance rather than a requirement, and is never painted red. The photograph has to be taken by an approved photographer or in an approved booth, so a print made here is for checking that theirs is right rather than for handing in. Italy publishes a width and nothing else: 35 to 40 mm, with the face filling 70 to 80 per cent of it. No height is stated anywhere, so this uses the ⁦35 x 45⁩ that Italian booths and photo shops sell. The head band is 26 to 30 mm, which is shorter than it sounds: 58 to 67 per cent of the frame, where ICAO asks for 70 to 80. A crop made to the ICAO rule is too tight for a Dutch application, and this is the entry that catches it. Two more published figures are read and not used: the face must be 16 to 20 mm wide with the ears left out, and a child under 11 may go down to 19 mm of head height. The 400 dpi floor is the reason this one prints larger than the rest. Not a ⁦35 x 45⁩ at all. Spain’s photograph is 26 mm wide by 32 mm tall, written “⁦32 x 26⁩ mm” in the regulations, and a European passport photo taken to a Spanish counter is the wrong size. A paper application takes four identical prints, and the witness signs and stamps the back of two of them. Anything from ⁦35 x 45⁩ up to ⁦38 x 50⁩ mm is accepted; this uses the smaller, which is what a booth produces. Applying online is a different job. That form takes a wider photograph — head to mid torso, at least ⁦715 x 951⁩ pixels — and crops it for you, so what it wants is the picture you started with rather than anything cropped here. Poland publishes the eye line in millimetres up from the bottom edge, which almost nobody does: 20 to 30 mm. It also says that on a full head of hair some of the hairstyle may fall outside the frame, so long as the face itself is not made smaller. South Korea Singapore New Zealand Online application photo Photo studios A size studios sell under this name, not a published rule Nobody publishes this one. It is what a studio, a form or an employer means when it asks for the size by name, so the frame is right and the head band is the ICAO one, shown as guidance and never marked as a failure. Korea checks two things almost nobody else states outright: the background may not be cut out or replaced in software, and the head is measured to the top of the skull with the hair excluded. The online form recommends ⁦413 x 531⁩ pixels, which is this print at 300 dpi. What Singapore publishes is the upload: ⁦400 x 514⁩ pixels, up to 8 MB, on a white background and taken in the last three months rather than the usual six. No millimetres are stated anywhere — ⁦400 x 514⁩ is the ⁦35 x 45⁩ proportion exactly, which is where this print size comes from. There is no print here on purpose. New Zealand asks for a digital photograph and says plainly that a scan of a printed one will not be accepted, so the sheet is switched off for this one. The shape is 3:4, not the ⁦35 x 45⁩ of a European print, and the file has both a floor and a ceiling: 250 KB to 5 MB, at least ⁦900 x 1200⁩ pixels and at most ⁦4500 x 6000⁩. One-inch print (⁦一寸⁩) The size a Chinese form means by ⁦一寸⁩: ⁦25 x 35⁩ mm. It is not a travel-document size and will not do for a passport — it is for school forms, work passes and the things that ask for a photograph to be glued on. Two-inch print (⁦二寸⁩) The other one a Chinese form asks for by name: ⁦35 x 49⁩ mm. Note that the passport size, ⁦33 x 48⁩ mm, is often called ⁦小二寸⁩ and is a different size again; it has its own entry above. Résumé photo (⁦履歴書⁩) The ⁦30 x 40⁩ mm photograph a Japanese résumé has a box for. Not a passport size — that one is ⁦35 x 45⁩ and has its own entry above. Half-card print (⁦반명함⁩) The ⁦30 x 40⁩ mm print Korean forms and applications ask for by name. The passport size is ⁦35 x 45⁩ and is a different thing; it has its own entry above. Switzerland Sweden Norway Portugal Plain and light — no colour is published plain and light This rule asks for a plain, evenly lit background and never says which colour, so the check here is wide: white, light grey, light blue and cream all pass. Refusing a wall the authority has not refused would be this tool inventing a requirement. Nobody publishes millimetres for this one. The frame here is the ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm most of the world issues against and the bands are ICAO’s, shown as guidance and never marked as a failure. Use it to see whether a photograph looks right, not to satisfy a rule that does not exist in numbers. The photograph is taken where you apply rather than brought with you, so a print made here is for checking — and for the forms, visas and applications that do still take one. What fedpol publishes is a sheet of examples, right and wrong, with no measurement anywhere on it: overexposure, a face too small, an open mouth, a hand across the face, a head turned, eyes closed, hair over the face. Sweden photographs you at the passport office when you apply, and says so as law rather than preference: it keeps the quality up and stops one person using another’s photograph to get a passport. Norway photographs you in a biometric kiosk and will not accept one from a photographer or a booth — with one exception, an emergency passport, which you do bring your own for. Its published requirements are unusually specific about the face without giving a size: the head should cover about 70 per cent of the picture, both ears must be visible, and glasses come off. Portugal publishes no dimensions at all, for the Cartão de Cidadão or the passport, and both are applied for in person. The passport-size print is what the consulates ask for when they ask for a photograph at all. Hong Kong Taiwan Vietnam Philippines Brazil Mexico Türkiye South Africa United Arab Emirates Wider and taller than almost anybody else’s: ⁦40 x 50⁩ mm, with the usual 32 to 36 mm head inside it, so there is more room around the face than a ⁦35 x 45⁩ leaves. The photograph is laser-engraved, which is why very dark and very light clothing are both advised against. Passport, applied for online Not the print at some resolution. The online form wants at least ⁦1200 x 1600⁩ pixels, which is 3:4 where the print is 4:5, in a JPEG of 5 MB or less — so this is a rule of its own with nothing to put on paper. The rule says outright what most only imply: a phone selfie comes out mirrored and wide-angled and is sent back, the image may not be resampled before it is printed, and both ears have to show. The upload takes a JPEG of at least ⁦413 x 531⁩ pixels and no more than 5 MB. A ⁦4 x 6⁩ cm print — taller in proportion than a ⁦35 x 45⁩, so a crop made for another country will not fit it — on white, head bare, no tinted glasses. Two are asked for, and the rule says they should come from a studio the immigration authority permits. The Philippines takes your passport photograph during the appointment. The Philippine Embassy in Rome publishes clothing and data-capture instructions, including no earrings or coloured contact lenses, but gives no photo measurements. Check the instructions for the office where you apply. Brazil’s ⁦5 x 7⁩ cm is for consulates abroad and for children under five. Inside Brazil the Polícia Federal photographs everybody older than that at the counter, and a photograph already used in an earlier passport is refused. Three things here are stricter than the usual: the photograph may be no more than thirty days old, glasses come off altogether, and a grey background is named as a reason for refusal — it has to be white. Not a ⁦35 x 45⁩, and the authority says so in as many words: the biometric photograph is ⁦50 x 60⁩ mm and photographers are to be reminded not to cut it down. A different size or background stops the application, or gets the card cancelled at quality control afterwards. The same 29 to 34 mm head the United Kingdom asks for, shorter than most of Europe’s — and the photograph may be no more than one month old. Offices that issue the smart ID card photograph you themselves; the prints are for the ones that do not, and the leaflet warns that a print made at home is unlikely to be good enough. The Emirates publish a width and no height — 35 to 40 mm, with the face filling 70 to 80 per cent of the photograph — so this uses the ⁦35 x 45⁩ that a studio there sells. The background is described only as plain and light-coloured. Pakistan Bangladesh Indonesia Israel Egypt Nigeria Read this one before using anything made here. Pakistan asks for a professionally taken photograph and says in so many words that one “cut down from larger pictures” or edited in software will not do — which is what a crop is. Use this to check that a studio’s photograph meets the 29 to 34 mm head and the white background; the upload may be up to 5 MB and no pixel size is stated, so the one written is the print at 300 dpi. Bangladesh attaches no photograph to an e-passport application at all: the portal says none is needed and none has to be attested, because the photograph is part of the biometric enrolment at the passport office. The one exception is a child under six, which has its own entry. Passport, child under six A child under six is not enrolled at the office, so a photograph is sent instead — and not a passport-size one. The rule asks for a 3R lab print, three and a half inches by five, on a grey background; the office takes the face out of it itself, which is why the head band here is wide. Indonesia takes your photograph and biometrics at the immigration office. The Bogor office lists this step after the M-Paspor appointment and document check, but publishes no photo dimensions. Follow the instructions from the office where you apply. Square, like the American one, and smaller: ⁦5 x 5⁩ cm on white. It is for a passport applied for abroad or a temporary one — inside Israel the photograph is taken at the passport office, and bringing prints is only suggested for children up to six, who are hard to photograph there. Egypt’s missions agree on three photographs and a white background, and not on a size. The consulate in London asks for passport photographs without giving one; the embassy in Washington asks for ⁦2 x 2⁩ inches, which is the United States entry in this list. Ask the mission you are applying to before printing. This preset records the portal’s ⁦600 x 800⁩ pixel upload, under 2 MB, on white. The source was checked on 19 September 2026; the current portal’s measurement instructions could not be rechecked here. Use its image-compliance check and current instructions before applying. The immigration office takes the official photograph. Malaysia Thailand Argentina Saudi Arabia e-Visa Malaysia’s frame is five millimetres taller than the usual one and the face in it is smaller: ⁦35 x 50⁩ mm, with a face of 25 to 30 mm — half to six tenths of the height, where most of the world asks for seven to eight tenths. A photograph cropped for anywhere else fails on both counts. Two prints, on white with no shadow. Expatriate pass (ESD Online) The same ⁦35 x 50⁩ mm frame as the Malaysian passport and a bigger head in it — 30 to 35 mm against the passport’s 25 to 30 — so one crop does not serve both. The upload may be no larger than 25 KB, which is little enough that the file written here is squeezed until it fits. White is accepted for both kinds of application the page names and blue for only one of them, so white is what is checked. Thailand takes the photograph itself, with fingerprints and an iris scan, at the passport office or the embassy, so there is no print to bring and no size is published. The one instruction its embassy gives for the day is not to wear coloured contact lenses. Thailand’s e-Visa publishes a head of around 70 per cent of the height, a vertical photograph on plain white or off-white, and a JPEG of at most 3 MB — and no size in pixels or millimetres. The shape written here is the usual ⁦35 x 45⁩ at 300 dpi, because some shape has to be; the portal offers an example photograph to compare against. Argentina’s passport is issued by RENAPER from biometric data taken at the appointment — its consulates do it at the counter — so nothing is brought and no size is published. A print is asked for only with an emergency or provisional passport, which has its own entry. Emergency or provisional passport Square and small: ⁦4 x 4⁩ cm, facing front on white, and “medio busto” — the shoulders are in the picture, so the head is smaller than in a passport crop. No hat and no glasses at all. It is what a consulate asks for when a passport has been lost or stolen abroad; the consulate in Asunción adds that it be in colour and on matt paper. The Saudi tourist e-Visa wants a square of exactly ⁦200 x 200⁩ pixels, between 5 and 100 KB, on white, with the face filling 70 to 80 per cent of it and both ears showing. The same sentence also gives the head in inches, which a file of 200 pixels has none of; the percentage is what is applied here. At that size nothing survives but the face, so start from a sharp photograph. Visa White or a plain light colour white or a plain light colour This rule takes white or any plain light colour and names no particular one, so the check here is wide: white, light grey, light blue and cream all pass. The print is the passport’s ⁦2 x 2⁩ inches, and two things are not. Glasses are no longer allowed in a visa photograph at all, short of a signed medical statement. And the DS-160 upload is a square of 600 to 1200 pixels and 240 kB at most — where online passport renewal takes up to 10 MB, so a file made for one is refused by the other. The page gives the head as “22 mm” beside one inch; its own composition template says 25, and still publishes the eye line the passport rule has dropped — 28 to 35 mm from the bottom. Permanent residence and PR card The photograph may be twelve months old here, where nearly every other rule says six, and the background is white only — the page warns against white clothing, which disappears into it. Online it is one file of ⁦715 x 1000⁩ to ⁦2000 x 2800⁩ pixels and 4 MB at most, and a phone picture of a paper photograph is refused where a proper scan is not. On paper it is two prints, and ones printed at home are not accepted. Citizenship Read this before using the upload. For an online application Canada asks for a file “saved directly from the camera without any changes” — and a crop is a change, so use this to check a photographer’s file and to make the paper prints. The minimum it states, ⁦420 x 540⁩ pixels, is not the shape of its own ⁦50 x 70⁩ mm frame; ⁦420 x 588⁩ is, and clears both figures. About 240 kB is suggested and 4 MB is the ceiling. Visitor visa (temporary resident visa) The one Canadian photograph in the ordinary frame: the passport, the PR card and citizenship are all ⁦50 x 70⁩ mm and this is ⁦35 x 45⁩ — “at least”, in the rule’s words — with the same 31 to 36 mm head, which therefore fills far more of it. Two identical prints; black and white is accepted as well as colour. Visa, paper photo This is the paper-photo size in Home Affairs Form 47OF: ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm, head and shoulders facing the camera against a plain background, with your name on the back. No head measurements are given. Check the checklist for your visa subclass before using it; an online application can ask for a different digital photograph. Citizenship, paper application Glasses come off: poor eyesight alone is not accepted as a reason to keep them on. The frame may be anything from ⁦35 x 45⁩ to ⁦40 x 50⁩ mm with the same 32 to 36 mm face in it. Home Affairs also says it does not recommend online passport-photo services or mobile apps for this, on image quality — so check what is made here against its examples before sending it. Citizenship, online application Online the photograph is a JPEG between 70 KB and 3.5 MB, with ⁦1200 x 1600⁩ pixels preferred — three to four, where the paper print is seven to nine, so it is a rule of its own with nothing to put on paper. A scan or a photograph of a printed photo is not accepted, glasses come off, and Home Affairs says it does not recommend online photo services or apps for this: check the result against its examples. For the regular online visa application, the official upload manual gives a square JPEG of ⁦350 to 1000⁩ pixels on each side, between 10 and 300 KB. The file written here is ⁦350 x 350⁩ pixels. The e-Visa has a separate entry and different file-size limits; follow your application form if its instructions differ. The e-Visa guidance asks for a square JPEG between 10 KB and 1 MB, with a full face, open eyes, no spectacles, and a plain light or white background. That guidance page states no pixel dimensions; ⁦600 x 600⁩ is this tool’s export preset, shown as guidance. Check the live application’s photo instructions. Russia Passport, ten-year biometric For the ten-year biometric passport no photographs are handed in at all: the consular section takes the photograph itself. What is published is what not to wear — no tinted glasses and no uniform — and that a head covering is allowed only where religion requires it and the oval of the face stays clear. A child under six has to let themselves be photographed there, which is why the five-year passport is suggested for them. Passport, five-year The older five-year passport is the one that still takes prints: three identical photographs of ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm, strictly full face, on white with no stripes, marks or shadows, the face and the top of the shoulders centred and the face filling 70 to 80 per cent. Black and white is accepted as well as colour. No tinted glasses and no uniform. Denmark Driving licence Identity card Health insurance card Driving licence, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland publishes its own rule; Great Britain’s DVLA asks only for “a recent printed passport type photo”, which is the passport entry. Here the photograph may be no more than a month old, on light grey or cream, in colour, and the page says not to trim a print down to ⁦45 x 35⁩ mm and that one printed at home is unlikely to be good enough. Applying online is different again: “don’t crop your photo — it will be done for you”, so send that one as it came off the camera. The photograph on a German health card does not have to be biometric, and every statutory insurer publishes its own wording; this is the Techniker Krankenkasse’s. ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm, colour or black and white, a background “as neutral as possible”, no hat or cap, and a digital picture of at least ⁦300 x 400⁩ pixels as a JPG, PNG or BMP. Check your own insurer’s page before uploading: some take the picture in their app instead. The electronic identity card publishes what the Italian passport does not: a face of 70 to 80 per cent and an eye line 23 to 31 mm above the bottom edge, on a plain background that is preferably light blue, beige, light brown, light grey or white. It also says the photograph must not be cropped to cut the background away or to straighten the head, nor retouched — so frame it square in the camera and let this only trim the edges. The ministry’s circular states the size as a range, 40 to 45 mm high by 32 to 35 wide, and the head twice over: 60 to 90 per cent of the height in its text and 28 to 32 mm under its figure. The millimetres sit inside the percentages and are what is applied here. Background light grey, cream or light blue for preference, or white; matt paper is advised; several photographs for one application must be identical. The same small ⁦32 x 26⁩ mm as the DNI, in colour, on a plain background — the DNI’s has to be white and this one only has to be plain. Since 6 November 2024 no photograph is asked for where the DGT already holds one, and a medical centre that does the renewal takes it there; this is for the cases that are left. Read this before using the upload. Poland lets a photograph be handed in as a file, and specifies it to the pixel: ⁦480 x 615⁩, 100 KB at most, a compression quality of at least 80 — and a JPEG with an EXIF header carrying the date it was taken. The file written here has the size and the weight and no EXIF header, so use it to see what fits and hand in the print, or a file from a camera that writes the date. An identity card can be applied for online with a file of at least ⁦492 x 633⁩ pixels and 2.5 MB at most, which is the upload written here. A passport cannot, except for a child under twelve, and that one asks for ⁦768 x 1004⁩. Switzerland publishes no figures for its passport and does for its driving licence: a face of 29 to 34 mm, on a plain, neutral background, in colour although the licence prints it in grey, and no more than a year old. Borderless, on smooth glossy or semi-matt photo paper, and with square corners — a print with rounded ones is refused. Sweden measures this one from the pupil to the tip of the chin, 14 to 17 mm, which is neither of the distances this tool measures; on most faces it is a head of 31 to 37 mm, so the band shown lands inside it. One print, cleanly cut to ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm with round or sharp corners, on a light background with no shadow. Black and white is accepted — the licence prints it that way whatever is sent — and no headwear or tinted glasses. Denmark measures the head to the top of the hair, 30 to 36 mm, which is how this tool measures it, so there is no correction to make. A plain light background — light blue or light grey are its examples — and one in sharp contrast for white or fair hair or a light headscarf. Colour or black and white. Residence card Plain blue plain blue Blue is what this rule asks for, and no particular blue is published, so the check is wide. It also wants the real background and not one edited in; nothing here changes a background, so stand in front of a blue wall or cloth. The identity card is smaller than any passport size: ⁦26 x 32⁩ mm, on white with no border, the head about two thirds of the picture and the face 15 mm wide, give or take one, between the roots of the ears. No uniform and no white top; somebody who always wears glasses wears them. Most police stations take this photograph themselves or send you to a studio they appoint — ask before printing one. The “one-inch” licence photograph is ⁦22 x 32⁩ mm, narrower than the studio one-inch in this list: head 19 to 22 mm long and 14 to 16 wide, on white, in colour, taken within six months, no uniform. These are the Beijing traffic police’s figures; other cities publish the same size. My Number card By post it is a ⁦45 x 35⁩ mm print with your name and date of birth written on the back; online it is a JPEG in RGB between 20 KB and 7 MB, each side from 480 to 6000 pixels, and no shape is stated — the one written here is the print’s. The diagram’s 34 mm face, give or take two, is labelled a guide, so it is shown as guidance. Black and white is accepted. A picture run through editing software may be refused, so check it against the examples on the site. Smaller than the passport’s and with its own figures: ⁦30 x 40⁩ mm, a head of 25 mm, give or take three, measured from the top of the hair to the chin, and 5 mm clear above it. No hat, no background and no shadow, taken within six months, your name on the back. Retouching is refused in every case, and so is a mirror-image photograph — which is what a phone’s front camera saves unless told not to. The photograph on the licence itself is taken by the staff. This one, ⁦24 x 30⁩ mm, goes on the application form: no hat, facing front, upper body, no background, within six months. A licence centre will use a photograph you bring only at certain test centres and only on photo paper. The print is the passport’s, 32 to 36 mm from the top of the head to the chin, on white, on photo paper only, with no teeth showing and nothing edited. Online the rule is unusually exact: a JPG of 500 KB at most, ⁦413 x 531⁩ pixels asked for and nothing outside 395 to 431 by 507 to 550 accepted at all. The resident registration card takes the passport’s ⁦3.5 x 4.5⁩ cm and says a photograph made for one serves the other. Its background rule is the looser of the two — none, or white for preference, with a pale single colour allowed — and no face size is given in millimetres. The same 32 to 36 mm head as the Taiwanese passport, on white — but it may be up to two years old, where the passport says six months. One thin glossy print with your name, ID number and the date on the back, or a JPG of at least ⁦413 x 531⁩ pixels and 5 MB at most. No tinted contact lenses, nothing retouched, and no mirror-image photograph. For exchanging or replacing a licence online: a ⁦3 x 4⁩ cm photograph on white — the police portal says white, whatever a provincial page says about blue — of at least ⁦473 x 630⁩ pixels and 700 KB at most. Avoid white and black clothes, keep the head within five degrees of upright, and take thick-rimmed or dark glasses off. Renewing a SIM online takes exactly ⁦480 x 640⁩ pixels and 100 KB at most, on blue. No glasses or contact lenses, no head covering, no blue hijab — it would vanish into the background — and the original file, not a picture of a print. A first licence is photographed at the office. One colour photograph of ⁦25 x 32⁩ mm on white — nothing like the ⁦35 x 50⁩ of the Malaysian passport. The road transport department’s English page says “black background”; its Malay page says putih, white, and the Malay is the original. The Sarathi portal wants a passport-shaped photograph of at least ⁦420 x 525⁩ pixels in a file of 10 to 20 KB, which is very small: the upload written here is squeezed hard to fit, and a plain, evenly lit background is what leaves room for the face. Light-coloured background, white for preference; religious headwear is allowed, caps and dark glasses are not. Firearms licence (PAL) A size of its own, ⁦45 x 57⁩ mm, with a head of at least 30 mm and no maximum published — the upper end of the band here is this tool’s. The file must be a JPG between 200 KB and 6 MB. It may be a year old and in black and white, tinted prescription lenses are refused even when the eyes show, and on a first application a guarantor signs the back of the print. Internal passport Two prints of ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm on white, colour or black and white. The regulation caps the head at 80 per cent of the height and leaves 5 mm, give or take one, clear above it; the lower end of the band here is this tool’s. Somebody who always wears glasses must be photographed in them, without tinted lenses; no uniform, no coat, no scarf over the chin, and nothing edited to improve how anyone looks. Read from the published text of the interior ministry’s order, whose own site does not answer from here. South Africa asks for black-and-white photographs: two identical prints of ⁦45 x 35⁩ mm in the Western Cape, four at some centres — ask yours how many before paying for them. Nothing here removes the colour, so have the shop print it in black and white. No head size is published. {name} (⁦{native}⁩) Common practice The ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm stationer standard, not a published rule You Whatever you were sent no print size — this rule is for a web form ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ mm at {dpi} dpi ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ pixels exactly ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ px ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ px, up to ⁦{maxWidth} x {maxHeight}⁩ at least ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ px {min} to {max} up to {max} {min} and up no file-size rule stated Upload rule none published — this one is a print {pixels}, JPEG, {size} {n} bytes {n} KB {n} MB Transcribed from {authority} — {document}. Checked {checked}. Rules change; the figures above are what to check against the form in front of you. Read from {authority} — {document}, on {checked}. That document describes the photograph without ever giving a measurement, so the figures above are not its own — see the note. Your own figures. Nothing here is checked against anything. Filled in from what you pasted. Each figure is listed under the words it was read from, so check the two against each other. A box the text does not mention keeps what it had. Nothing in that text reads as a photo size, a head height, a background, an upload size or a file size, so no box was changed. Type the figures in below instead. No box was changed. What it did find, and why each was left alone: It gives more than one photo size, so the size was left alone. Type in the one your document asks for: It names the size rather than measuring it, and studios do not agree on what those names measure, so the size was left alone. Type in the millimetres your document asks for: It asks for a background this page has no check for - it checks white, off-white, light grey and cream - so the background was left alone: It allows more than one upload size, and the smallest was filled in: a head width, which is not used: this page measures the head from chin to crown, not across an eye position, which is not used: this page takes the eye line from the ICAO standard a margin, which is not used: this page frames the photo by the head's height, and the margins follow from it a paper size to print on, not the size of the photo a measurement that matched none of the boxes A signature is checked differently: that the paper is light, that there is ink on it, and that the crop has not taken in a ruled line or the edge of the page. Read from a band across the top of the crop and down each side, above the shoulders — the parts of the frame that ought to be nothing but background. Measured in CIE Lab rather than in RGB, because two greys forty RGB units apart are indistinguishable and forty units of blue is a different colour. {floor} dpi is this rule's floor. At {chosen} dpi the file comes out {size}, and the JPEG carries that resolution in its header, so a print shop prints it at the right size rather than guessing. {sheet}, with cut marks in the gaps and nothing printed over a photograph. ⁦4 x 6⁩ inch print (⁦10 x 15⁩ cm) ⁦5 x 7⁩ inch print (⁦13 x 18⁩ cm) A4 sheet (⁦210 x 297⁩ mm) US Letter (⁦8.5 x 11⁩ inch) this photo does not fit on this paper at all. 1 copy, {columns} across and {rows} down {n} copies, {columns} across and {rows} down that is not an image this browser can open. {name} — ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ pixels {name}: {why} The rule wanted more picture than there is: {list}. The box has been kept inside the photograph instead, which is why the figures below may not all be green. A photo taken a step further back is the fix. {value} px at the {side} top bottom left right {a}, {b} Crown the very top of the head, hair included Chin the bottom of the chin Left eye the pupil, on the left as you look at it Right eye the other pupil {label}: {x} pixels from the left and {y} pixels from the top of the photograph. {label}: {hint}. The arrow keys move it; hold Shift for ten pixels at a time. Crop area. The arrow keys move it, Alt and the arrow keys resize it, and holding Shift makes each step ten pixels. The shape is fixed by the specification and cannot be changed. writing the ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ mm print laying out the sheet squeezing to: {label} done The print — ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ mm ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ pixels, {size}, tagged {dpi} dpi in the file itself so a print shop reproduces it at the right size. The sheet — {paper} {sheet}, {size}, tagged {dpi} dpi. Print it at 100 per cent — "fit to page" is what makes a sheet come out the wrong size. The upload — ⁦{width} x {height}⁩ {size} after 1 encode. {how} {size} after {n} encodes. {how} Something went wrong making the files: {why} this browser could not decode the picture. this browser would not write a JPEG. gave up after too many attempts. a specification with neither a print size nor a pixel size cannot be cropped to. Even at the lowest quality worth using, this comes out at {size}, which is over the limit. The picture has more detail in it than the form allows for. Written at quality {quality}, which is {size} — inside the band the form accepts. The picture encodes to {size} at the very top of the quality dial, which is still under the {floor} floor the form insists on. {added} of JPEG comment was added to reach it; the picture itself is untouched. Print size Head, chin to crown Eye line, from the bottom Background {min} to {max} {range} (⁦{min}–{max}⁩ mm) {band} (guidance) {percent} ({mm} mm) Head height is {measured}. The rule asks for {wanted}. Head height is {measured}, which is too small. The rule asks for {wanted}. Make the box smaller. Head height is {measured}, which is too large. The rule asks for {wanted}. Make the box larger. The eye line is {measured}. The rule asks for {wanted}. The eye line is {measured}, which is too low in the frame. The rule asks for {wanted}. Move the box down. The eye line is {measured}, which is too high in the frame. The rule asks for {wanted}. Move the box up. The eye line is level. The head leans {degrees} degrees to the left, which is within the couple of degrees an examiner will not notice. The head leans {degrees} degrees to the right, which is within the couple of degrees an examiner will not notice. The head leans {degrees} degrees to the left, which is enough to be noticed. Retake it with the camera level, or straighten the picture first. The head leans {degrees} degrees to the right, which is enough to be noticed. Retake it with the camera level, or straighten the picture first. The face is centred in the frame. The face sits {size} of the frame’s width to the left of centre. Drag the box the other way, or press Fit again. The face sits {size} of the frame’s width to the right of centre. Drag the box the other way, or press Fit again. The crop is {have} pixels and the output is {need}, so nothing has to be invented. The crop is only {have} pixels and the output is {need}. It will be enlarged slightly, which costs a little sharpness and nothing else. The crop is only {have} pixels and the output is {need}. That is a long way short: the result will look soft, and on paper it will look like a screenshot. A photograph taken closer, or at a higher resolution, is the only fix. The geometry does not meet the rule yet. You can still save the files — nothing here refuses to give you your own photograph — but the figures above are what the form will be measuring. The geometry meets the rule. The background does not, and that is the more common reason a photograph comes back. The geometry meets the rule and the background reads as acceptable. Plain white plain white A white wall photographs light grey. What is being asked for is a plain, evenly lit, shadow-free background, not a paint colour. White or off-white white or off-white Either is accepted, which in practice means anything plain and light with no pattern, no furniture and no shadow behind the head. Plain light grey plain light grey Light grey is the ICAO preference because it separates a fair face from the background and dark hair from it as well. Pure white does neither. Light grey or cream light grey or cream The wording used by the UK. Cream reads as a warm off-white; the point of the rule is that it is plain and uniform, not that it is any one shade. The background reads {hex}, which is a long way from {wanted}. The background reads {hex} — close to {wanted}, but not quite it. The background reads {hex}, which passes as {wanted}. It is not one flat colour — there is a shadow, a pattern or an object behind you. Slightly uneven. Standing a foot further from the wall is usually the whole fix. Evenly lit, with no shadow behind the head. One side of the background is much darker than the other, which reads as side lighting. One side is a little darker than the other. {colour} This tool will not replace a background: cutting a person out of a photograph needs a segmentation model, and a bad one eats the hair of exactly the people whose photographs already get rejected most often. Standing a foot further from the wall fixes more of these than any filter would. Nothing here changes your signature. It is measured and reported, and the crop is yours to move. Almost no ink in the crop. Either the box is off the signature, or the pen was too light to photograph. A great deal of dark pixels — check the crop has not taken in a ruled line or the edge of the page. Ink covers {coverage}% of the crop, which reads as a signature. The paper is coming out grey rather than white. More light on the page, or a scan rather than a photo. The paper is a little dull. Most forms want a clean white page behind the signature. The paper is clean and white. All four were measured off the photograph — the crown from the outline of your head, the pupils from the dark of them, the chin from where the jaw runs into the neck. Check them anyway, and drag any that landed wrong: the crop is taken from where they end up. Placed, but not all of it measured. Check all four dots before you fit the box. Nothing could be measured on this photograph. The dots are at their opening positions instead — drag them onto the crown, the chin and each pupil. The four dots are yours, and nothing will move them. Drag each onto the crown, the chin and a pupil. You have moved a dot, so all four are yours now. “Find them for me” measures the picture again. The wall behind you is not plain enough to find the edge of a head against. The head runs off the top of the photograph, so there was no crown to find. The eyes could not be picked out, so both were put where a head this size usually has them. The chin came from the proportions of a head rather than from the outline of this one. Find the face again Put the dots back your photographs have gone nowhere. {total} files loaded, all of them this page's own. {platform} something contacted {hosts}, which this tool never does. Treat that as worth investigating. {platform} The page's own ad, measurement and donate-button scripts loaded from {hosts} host; not one of them was given a photograph or a byte of one. The page's own ad, measurement and donate-button scripts loaded from {hosts} hosts; not one of them was given a photograph or a byte of one.

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# ID Photo Maker — passport and visa photos to spec

Choose a supported country and document. Published rules and guidance are marked.

> Prepare passport or visa photos for supported countries: published sizes, marked crop guidance, head and eye overlays, background checks, printable sheets and JPEG upload presets. Your photo stays in your browser.

This is an interactive browser tool at https://abox.tools/id-photo/. Files are processed on the device running that browser. Any deliberate sharing or optional network feature is described on the page. What follows is its written explanation; open the address to use it.

## Your photos are **processed in your browser**. No processing upload.

The cropping, the measuring, the background reading and the printing all run in your own browser, on your own hardware, using the JPEG encoder it already ships with. This tool has no network feature of any kind — nothing to fetch, nothing to send — and there is no server on the other end of this page to send a photograph of your face to even if there were.

- ✗ No upload
- ✗ No account
- ✗ No watermark
- ✓ Works offline
- ✓ Open source

## How to prepare a passport photo

1. **Choose the photograph.** A phone picture against a plain wall, in daylight, taken from about a metre and a half away. It is read straight off your disk by the browser; nothing is sent anywhere while you do it.
2. **Pick the country and the document.** Type the country’s name into the box, or open its list, then pick which of that country’s documents you are applying for. The panel then shows that rule's print size, head-height band, eye line, background colour and upload limits — along with the authority each figure came from and the date it was read. Nothing on that list is guessed at, and anything you were sent that is not on it goes in under “Anywhere else”.
3. **Check the four dots on your face.** Crown, chin, and each pupil — those four points are the whole of what the rule measures. They are placed by measuring the picture itself, and the line under them says which of the four that managed and which it had to work out; drag any that landed wrong, or switch to *I’ll place them* and do all four yourself. Then press *Fit the box* and the crop lands where that country wants it.
4. **Read the four checks, and the background.** Head height, eye line, centring and tilt, each measured from the box as it stands and each saying which way to drag if it is out. The background is read from the top and the sides of the crop and compared with the colour the rule asks for — unevenness, which is what actually gets photos rejected, is measured separately from colour.
5. **Take the three files.** The print, at the exact millimetres with the resolution written into the file so a shop prints it at the right size. The sheet, with as many copies as a ⁦4 × 6⁩ holds and cut marks in the gaps. And the upload, at the pixel size the portal demands and inside the KB band it enforces at both ends.

## The longer version

[How to take a passport photo that is not sent back](https://abox.tools/guides/make-a-passport-photo/): What a passport photo is actually measured on - head height, eye line, background - which country wants which numbers, and how to hit the pixel and KB limits an online form enforces.

## Also in the box

- [Image Stacker](https://abox.tools/stack-images/): Twenty frames into one, without twenty uploads or a RAW converter.
- [Image Redactor](https://abox.tools/redact-image/): What you cover is deleted from the file, not covered up in it.
- [EXIF Viewer & Remover](https://abox.tools/exif-editor/): See what a photo says about you. Then take it out.
- [DICOM Viewer](https://abox.tools/dicom-viewer/): CT, MR, X-ray and ultrasound, with the window, the header and the measurements.

## Questions

### Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No. The picture is decoded, cropped, measured and written by your own browser on your own hardware, using the JPEG encoder the browser already ships with. This tool has no network feature of any kind — it never fetches anything and never sends anything — and the page's `Content-Security-Policy` names every address it may contact, none of which belongs to this site. That is worth more here than on most tools: the file is a photograph of your face.

### Which countries are covered?

Enough of them that listing the names here would be a list needing an edit every time one is added, so: every entry is transcribed from the authority that published it, and every entry prints that authority and the date it was read underneath the figures. The chooser is the list — type a country into it and you will know in a second whether it is there. Anything that is not goes under “Anywhere else”, where every figure is yours to type; since most of the world issues against the ICAO geometry, that entry starts on it. A country whose figures nobody publishes is still on the list, and says so on its own entry: the frame is the ⁦35 × 45⁩ mm most of the world issues against, the bands are ICAO’s and are never marked as a failure, and the note tells you what the authority actually says instead — often that it photographs you at the counter. What is not done anywhere here is filling a figure in from what other tools say.

### How does it find the crown, the chin and the eyes without a face model?

By using something a general face detector is not allowed to assume and this tool is: every one of these specifications demands the same scene — one person, facing the camera, against a plain evenly-lit wall. So the colour of the wall is read from the border of the picture, everything that is not that colour is the person, and the top of them is the crown, hair included. The pupils are found as the best pair of patches that are darker than their own surroundings, level with each other and either side of the middle of the head — a comparison that is local, so nothing in it depends on what colour a face is. The chin is the one that cannot be found this way, because a jaw against a neck is a soft edge with no colour change across it; it is worked out from the pupils, which sit a little below the middle of a head once the hair on top of it is counted, and then checked against the outline. All of it is arithmetic in `src/detect.js`: no weights, no inference runtime, nothing fetched, and the same arithmetic for every face put through it. That last part is the one that matters, because a shipped detector is wrong unevenly — worse on some faces than on others — and the people whose photographs already get rejected most often are the ones it would let down.

### How much should I trust the dots it places?

Enough to start from, not enough to skip looking at. Each of the four has a photograph it is wrong on: a patterned wall or a bookcase leaves no outline to find a head against, a head cropped at the top has no crown in the picture at all, and spectacles, a heavy fringe or closed eyes can put the pupils on the wrong feature. So the tool says out loud which of the four it measured and which it had to work out, refuses outright on a picture with no plain background in it rather than inventing an answer, and leaves every dot draggable. The crop is taken from where the dots end up, never from where they started. If you would rather place all four yourself, the switch above the picture says *I’ll place them*, and moving any dot by hand flips to that on its own — from that moment they are yours and nothing will move them again.

### What is the head height rule, and why does mine keep failing it?

Every one of these specifications states how much of the frame the head has to fill, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, hair included — usually 70 to 80 per cent, which for a 45 mm photo is 31.5 to 36 mm. The usual reason it fails is a selfie: an arm's length is about 60 cm, which distorts the face and puts the head too large in the frame. The usual second reason is the crown — it is the top of the hair, not the hairline, and marking the hairline makes every head come out too small.

### Why does the file have to be at least 20 KB, and how can it be padded?

Indian examination portals, the Chinese visa form and the UK passport upload all state a minimum file size as well as a maximum, because a file under it is usually a thumbnail somebody uploaded by mistake. A ⁦200 × 230⁩ photograph is 46,000 pixels, and at the best quality a browser will write it can still land at 15 KB, with no way to make it larger by compressing less. So the tool adds a JPEG comment segment full of spaces. That is part of the JPEG standard, every decoder skips it, and the picture is bit-for-bit the same picture — only the file is longer. The padding says exactly that, in English, inside the file.

### Does it check the background, and can it replace one?

It checks and will not replace. The colour is read from a band across the top of the crop and down each side, above the shoulders, and compared with the rule's colour in CIE Lab rather than in RGB — two greys forty RGB units apart are indistinguishable and forty units of blue is a different colour. Unevenness is measured separately, because a shadow on a white wall is what actually gets photographs rejected, and it is not a colour problem. Replacing a background means cutting a person out of a picture, which is a segmentation model, and a bad one eats hair. Standing a foot further from the wall fixes more of these than any filter would.

### What is the ⁦4 x 6⁩ sheet for?

A booth charges several pounds for six photographs. A photo counter prints a ⁦6 × 4⁩ for pennies and every one of them will do it. So the tool lays as many copies of your photo as the paper holds — eight, for a ⁦35 × 45⁩ on a ⁦6 × 4⁩ — with cut marks in the gaps and nothing printed over a picture. Nothing is scaled to fit: every copy is exactly the size the rule asks for, because a sheet that shrank them by two per cent to fit one more on would be eight photographs that are all the wrong size. Print it at 100 per cent; “fit to page” is what makes a sheet come out wrong.

### Why does the DPI matter if the pixels are the same?

Because a JPEG can say what size it is, and if it does not, whatever prints it guesses. The resolution lives in the JFIF header, and a browser canvas writes that header with the units field set to “this is an aspect ratio, not a resolution”. This tool rewrites those few bytes so the file says 300 dpi, which is what turns ⁦413 × 531⁩ pixels into a ⁦35 × 45⁩ mm photograph rather than an image of no particular size. Nothing is decoded to do it and no quality is spent.

### Can it do the signature file as well?

Yes. The cited IBPS notice prefers ⁦140 × 60⁩ pixels and requires 10 to 20 KB for a signature JPEG. This preset writes those dimensions; check the current notice for your application. The face overlay is disabled. The tool checks for light paper, visible ink, and lines or page edges in the crop.

### Will this guarantee my application is accepted?

No, and no tool honestly can. What it does is apply the published figures exactly and show you every measurement it made, so that the things a form measures automatically — pixel size, file size, format — are right, and the things a human examiner measures — head height, eye line, the background — are in front of you with numbers on them. The rules also change: every specification here says which authority it came from and when it was read, so you can check it against the form in front of you rather than trusting a table.

### Is it free, and do I need an account?

It is free, and there is no account, no sign-in, no trial and no watermark printed across your face. There is no limit on how many photographs you make either, because there is no server paying for them. The site carries advertising, which is what pays for it; the ads are not given anything about your photograph.

### Does it work offline?

Yes. Load the page once, then disconnect from the internet and it keeps working — the rulebook is a file served with the page, not a lookup. That is also the simplest way to prove nothing is being uploaded: a tool that sent your photograph away to be cropped would stop the moment you unplugged.

## How the privacy claim is verifiable

- **A photograph of your face never leaves this machine.** That matters more here than on most tools: the file this page handles is a picture of your face, and the thing you are about to do with it names the country whose document you are applying for. The `Content-Security-Policy` names every address this page may contact, and not one of them belongs to this site. There is no endpoint here your photograph could be collected at.
- **Nothing here fetches anything.** There is no `fetch`, no `XMLHttpRequest` and no `sendBeacon` anywhere in `src/`. The rulebook is a table in `src/specs.js`, served with the page and cached with it — there is no country list to look up and nothing to check your photo against remotely.
- **The face is found without a face model.** There are no weights to download, no inference runtime and nothing fetched: the crown comes from the outline of your head against the wall behind it, the pupils from the patches of the face that are darker than what surrounds them. Nothing in it reads skin colour, which is the whole reason it is written that way — a model that is wrong is wrong unevenly, worse on some faces than on others. It is a starting position rather than a verdict: the page says which of the four points it could not measure, every dot stays draggable, and switching to *I’ll place them* turns it off entirely.
- **What Google loads, and what it is not given.** The ad and measurement scripts come from Google, and the donate button from Buy Me a Coffee. None of them is handed anything about your photograph, your face, or which country's rule you picked. Every line that reads, crops, measures or writes a file is served from this origin and listed in the repository.
- **It works offline.** Disconnect from the network and the tool is unchanged, because there was never a network step in it. That is the simplest proof of all.

**Check it yourself.** None of the above has to be taken on trust. This page is generated from the templates and config in the repository by a build script you can read and run yourself, and the result is committed to the `dist` branch — so you can diff what is served against what a build of the sources produces: https://github.com/A-Box-of-Tools/website

The files worth reading first are `config/site.toml` for the Content-Security-Policy, `src/specs.js` for the rulebook — every country's published figures — `src/sources.js` for the authority and the date behind each one, `src/detect.js` for how the four points are found — an outline and two dark patches, with no model in it anywhere — `src/geometry.js` for the arithmetic that turns those four points into a crop, and `src/jpeg.js` for the two header edits that put the print resolution into the file and bring a too-small upload up to the size a form insists on.

How to prepare a passport photo

Choose the photograph. A phone picture against a plain wall, in daylight, taken from about a metre and a half away. It is read straight off your disk by the browser; nothing is sent anywhere while you do it.
Pick the country and the document. Type the country’s name into the box, or open its list, then pick which of that country’s documents you are applying for. The panel then shows that rule's print size, head-height band, eye line, background colour and upload limits — along with the authority each figure came from and the date it was read. Nothing on that list is guessed at, and anything you were sent that is not on it goes in under “Anywhere else”.
Check the four dots on your face. Crown, chin, and each pupil — those four points are the whole of what the rule measures. They are placed by measuring the picture itself, and the line under them says which of the four that managed and which it had to work out; drag any that landed wrong, or switch to I’ll place them and do all four yourself. Then press Fit the box and the crop lands where that country wants it.
Read the four checks, and the background. Head height, eye line, centring and tilt, each measured from the box as it stands and each saying which way to drag if it is out. The background is read from the top and the sides of the crop and compared with the colour the rule asks for — unevenness, which is what actually gets photos rejected, is measured separately from colour.
Take the three files. The print, at the exact millimetres with the resolution written into the file so a shop prints it at the right size. The sheet, with as many copies as a ⁦4 × 6⁩ holds and cut marks in the gaps. And the upload, at the pixel size the portal demands and inside the KB band it enforces at both ends.

The longer version

How to take a passport photo that is not sent back What a passport photo is actually measured on - head height, eye line, background - which country wants which numbers, and how to hit the pixel and KB limits an online form enforces.

Photo rules by country

Every rule with published figures has a page of its own that states them, with the authority that published them and the date they were read.

ICAO standard Any biometric travel document
United States Passport and green card Visa Diversity Visa lottery entry
United Kingdom Passport Driving licence, Northern Ireland
Schengen area Visa application
Germany (⁦Deutschland⁩) Passport and identity card (⁦Reisepass⁩) Health insurance card (⁦Gesundheitskarte⁩)
France Passport and identity card (⁦Passeport, carte nationale d’identité⁩)
Italy (⁦Italia⁩) Passport (⁦Passaporto⁩) Identity card (⁦Carta d’identità elettronica⁩) Driving licence (⁦Patente di guida⁩)
Netherlands (⁦Nederland⁩) Passport, identity card and driving licence (⁦Paspoort, identiteitskaart, rijbewijs⁩)
Spain (⁦España⁩) Passport and identity card (⁦Pasaporte, Documento Nacional de Identidad⁩) Driving licence (⁦Permiso de conducir⁩)
Ireland (⁦Éire⁩) Passport
Poland (⁦Polska⁩) Passport and identity card (⁦Paszport, dowód osobisty⁩) Driving licence (⁦Prawo jazdy⁩)
Switzerland (⁦Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera⁩) Driving licence (⁦Führerausweis⁩)
Sweden (⁦Sverige⁩) Driving licence (⁦Körkort⁩)
Denmark (⁦Danmark⁩) Driving licence (⁦Kørekort⁩)
Russia (⁦Россия⁩) Passport, five-year (⁦Загранпаспорт 5-летнего образца⁩) Internal passport (⁦Паспорт гражданина Российской Федерации⁩)
Canada Passport (⁦Passeport⁩) Permanent residence and PR card (⁦Résidents permanents⁩) Citizenship (⁦Citoyenneté⁩) Visitor visa (temporary resident visa) (⁦Visa de résident temporaire⁩) Firearms licence (PAL)
Australia Passport Visa, paper photo Citizenship, paper application Citizenship, online application
India (⁦भारत⁩) Passport (⁦पासपोर्ट⁩) Visa e-Visa Driving licence IBPS online form photo
China (⁦中国⁩) Passport and visa (⁦护照⁩) Identity card (⁦居民身份证⁩) Driving licence (⁦机动车驾驶证⁩)
Japan (⁦日本⁩) Passport (⁦旅券（パスポート）⁩) My Number card (⁦マイナンバーカード⁩) Residence card (⁦在留カード⁩) Driving licence (⁦運転免許証⁩)
South Korea (⁦대한민국⁩) Passport (⁦여권⁩) Driving licence (⁦운전면허증⁩) Identity card (⁦주민등록증⁩)
Singapore Passport and identity card
Hong Kong (⁦香港⁩) Passport (⁦特區護照⁩) Passport, applied for online
Taiwan (⁦臺灣⁩) Passport (⁦護照⁩) Identity card (⁦國民身分證⁩)
Vietnam (⁦Việt Nam⁩) Passport (⁦Hộ chiếu⁩) Driving licence (⁦Giấy phép lái xe⁩)
Pakistan (⁦پاکستان⁩) Passport (⁦پاسپورٹ⁩)
Bangladesh (⁦বাংলাদেশ⁩) Passport, child under six
Indonesia Driving licence (⁦Surat Izin Mengemudi⁩)
Malaysia Passport (⁦Pasport Malaysia⁩) Expatriate pass (ESD Online) Driving licence (⁦Lesen memandu⁩)
Thailand (⁦ประเทศไทย⁩) e-Visa
New Zealand Passport
Brazil (⁦Brasil⁩) Passport (⁦Passaporte⁩)
Mexico (⁦México⁩) Passport (⁦Pasaporte⁩)
Argentina Emergency or provisional passport (⁦Pasaporte de emergencia, pasaporte provisorio⁩)
Türkiye Passport, identity card and driving licence (⁦Pasaport, kimlik kartı, sürücü belgesi⁩)
South Africa Passport and identity card Driving licence
United Arab Emirates (⁦الإمارات⁩) Passport and identity card
Saudi Arabia (⁦السعودية⁩) e-Visa
Israel (⁦ישראל⁩) Passport (⁦דרכון⁩)
Nigeria Passport

Questions

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No. The picture is decoded, cropped, measured and written by your own browser on your own hardware, using the JPEG encoder the browser already ships with. This tool has no network feature of any kind — it never fetches anything and never sends anything — and the page's Content-Security-Policy names every address it may contact, none of which belongs to this site. That is worth more here than on most tools: the file is a photograph of your face.

Which countries are covered?

How does it find the crown, the chin and the eyes without a face model?

By using something a general face detector is not allowed to assume and this tool is: every one of these specifications demands the same scene — one person, facing the camera, against a plain evenly-lit wall. So the colour of the wall is read from the border of the picture, everything that is not that colour is the person, and the top of them is the crown, hair included. The pupils are found as the best pair of patches that are darker than their own surroundings, level with each other and either side of the middle of the head — a comparison that is local, so nothing in it depends on what colour a face is. The chin is the one that cannot be found this way, because a jaw against a neck is a soft edge with no colour change across it; it is worked out from the pupils, which sit a little below the middle of a head once the hair on top of it is counted, and then checked against the outline. All of it is arithmetic in src/detect.js: no weights, no inference runtime, nothing fetched, and the same arithmetic for every face put through it. That last part is the one that matters, because a shipped detector is wrong unevenly — worse on some faces than on others — and the people whose photographs already get rejected most often are the ones it would let down.

How much should I trust the dots it places?

Enough to start from, not enough to skip looking at. Each of the four has a photograph it is wrong on: a patterned wall or a bookcase leaves no outline to find a head against, a head cropped at the top has no crown in the picture at all, and spectacles, a heavy fringe or closed eyes can put the pupils on the wrong feature. So the tool says out loud which of the four it measured and which it had to work out, refuses outright on a picture with no plain background in it rather than inventing an answer, and leaves every dot draggable. The crop is taken from where the dots end up, never from where they started. If you would rather place all four yourself, the switch above the picture says I’ll place them, and moving any dot by hand flips to that on its own — from that moment they are yours and nothing will move them again.

What is the head height rule, and why does mine keep failing it?

Why does the file have to be at least 20 KB, and how can it be padded?

Does it check the background, and can it replace one?

What is the ⁦4 x 6⁩ sheet for?

Why does the DPI matter if the pixels are the same?

Can it do the signature file as well?

Will this guarantee my application is accepted?

Is it free, and do I need an account?

Does it work offline?

How the privacy claim is verifiable