# Photo requirements: Passport and identity card, Germany

The published rule for this document’s photograph — from Bundesministerium des Innern, as it was read on 2026-08-20 — and a way to make one that meets it without sending your face to anybody.

Last updated 2026-08-20

## The figures

| What is measured | What this rule publishes |
| --- | --- |
| Print size | ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm at 300 dpi |
| Head, chin to crown | 71.1% to 80.0% (⁦32–36⁩ mm) |
| Eye line, from the bottom | 50.0% to 60.0% (⁦22.5–27⁩ mm) |
| Background | Plain light grey |
| Upload rule | none published — this one is a print |

[Make this photo](https://abox.tools/id-photo/#de-passport) Opens the photo tool with this rule already chosen. It runs in your browser: the photograph is never uploaded, and there is no account and no watermark.

## What else this rule says

- 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.

## Where these figures come from

Transcribed from Bundesministerium des Innern — Passbildschablone / biometric photo template. Checked 2026-08-20. Rules change; the figures above are what to check against the form in front of you.

## What the tool does with them

- Locks the crop to this document’s shape, and draws the head and eye bands inside it, so you can see the rule on your own photograph instead of reading about it.
- Finds the crown, the chin and both pupils by measuring the picture — no face model is downloaded — and says in millimetres whether the head is too large or too small for this rule.
- Reads the background colour and how evenly it is lit, and says which of the two is the problem when there is one.
- Writes the print at the exact millimetres with the resolution in the file, a sheet of them with cut marks, and the upload file at the pixel and file size this rule states.

[Every country and document in the photo tool](https://abox.tools/id-photo/)