Passport Size Photo Guide for Aadhaar, SSC, Passport & More

One form asks for a 3.5 x 4.5 cm photo. Another wants 200 x 230 pixels and under 50 KB. A third wants a white background, while the next one says light background is fine. Here is a single reference for the photo requirements of the most common Indian application forms, plus a way to make a photo that meets those specs using just your phone browser. No scanner, no studio, no uploading your photo to a stranger's server.

Photo specifications for common Indian forms

These numbers are from official sources and recent notifications. Always check the current notification on the official portal before you finalise your application.

Watch out: If the portal asks for dimensions in centimetres and you are working with pixels, 200 x 230 pixels at 96 DPI is the standard approximation for 3.5 x 4.5 cm. Most Indian portals accept that without issue. The face should cover about 60–70% of the frame, which means the top of the head to the chin should fill roughly two‑thirds of the photo height.

How to create a passport size photo from a selfie on your phone

Step 1: Take the right kind of photo

Stand against a plain white or very light wall. Face a window during daylight for even lighting; avoid overhead tube lights that cast shadows under the eyes. Keep both ears visible, hair away from the face, and a neutral expression (no smile, or a slight natural smile depending on the form). Remove glasses if the form says no spectacles. Ask someone else to take the photo from about 1.5 metres away, or set a phone timer and prop the phone at face height. Selfies taken at arm's length often distort the nose and make the face look wider than it is. A photo taken from a short distance with the rear camera looks more natural.

Step 2: Open the passport photo maker

Go to the passport photo maker on your phone browser. The tool loads fully inside the browser. Once the crop screen appears, you can turn off mobile data; the photo stays on your phone. No server ever sees it.

Step 3: Crop the photo to passport proportions

Select the photo from your gallery. A crop box appears with the correct passport aspect ratio locked. Drag the corners so your face is centred, with the top of your head near the upper guideline and your chin above the lower one. Leave a small amount of space above the head and below the chin. Your shoulders should be visible, and the face should fill most of the crop area.

Step 4: Set the pixel dimensions and compress

Enter the dimensions the form requires (200 x 230 pixels is the safe default for most Indian forms). The tool scales the cropped photo to fit. After resizing, it applies compression. A well‑lit face on a white wall usually lands between 25 and 45 KB at the default quality setting. Check the file size. If it is over 50 KB, lower the quality slider a small amount. If it is under 20 KB, increase the quality slightly. Download the final JPG.

Step 5: Verify the photo before uploading

Open the downloaded photo. Check that your face is clearly visible, the background is as white as your original wall allowed, and there are no odd cropping artefacts. Name the file "photo.jpg" and upload it to the form. Some portals show a preview after upload; if the face looks distorted or squashed, the pixel dimensions may have been swapped (width and height reversed). Re‑enter them correctly and download again.

What if you don't have a white wall?

A plain white bedsheet pinned flat against a door or wall works surprisingly well. Stand a foot away from the sheet to avoid casting a shadow on it. The lighting should fall on your face and the sheet evenly. If the background still looks greyish after processing, some portals accept a light grey background, but Passport Seva specifically asks for white. In that case, you may need a friend with a white wall, or a local photo studio that will give you a digital file without printing. You can then use this tool to resize and compress that studio file to the exact specs the form needs.

FAQ

Can I use the same passport photo for Aadhaar, passport, and SSC?

Yes, if the photo is recent (within the last six months) and meets each portal's specs. Keep a master copy of the unedited, well‑lit photo and create a freshly cropped and compressed version for each application. Repeatedly compressing the same JPG degrades quality, so always start from the master copy.

Why does my photo look stretched or squeezed after resizing?

This happens if the crop you made was a very different shape from the final pixel dimensions. The passport photo maker keeps the crop aspect ratio locked to the standard passport shape, so this should not happen if you use the built‑in crop. If you cropped outside the tool, make sure the crop is roughly 3.5:4.5 ratio before resizing.

Does the tool support JPEG only or can I get a PNG?

The output is JPG, which is what every Indian form portal accepts. If you need PNG for any reason, you can convert the JPG using the image converter tool afterwards, but the file size will be larger at the same quality.