# Photo requirements: Passport, identity card and driving licence, Netherlands

The published rule for this document’s photograph — from Rijksdienst voor Identiteitsgegevens, as it was read on 2026-09-17 — and a way to make one that meets it without sending your face to anybody.

Last updated 2026-09-17

## The figures

| What is measured | What this rule publishes |
| --- | --- |
| Print size | ⁦35 x 45⁩ mm at 400 dpi |
| Head, chin to crown | 57.8% to 66.7% (⁦26–30⁩ mm) |
| Eye line, from the bottom | 50.0% to 60.0% (⁦22.5–27⁩ mm) (guidance) |
| Background | White, light grey or light blue |
| Upload rule | none published — this one is a print |

[Make this photo](https://abox.tools/id-photo/#nl-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 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.
- 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.

## Where these figures come from

Transcribed from Rijksdienst voor Identiteitsgegevens — Fotomatrix 2020, photo specification guidelines. Checked 2026-09-17. 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/)