Make a passport photo at home
Choose a country, line your face up with the head guide and download the photo plus a 10 x 15 cm print sheet. Your photo stays on your device.
Top of head Eyes Chin
Drag the photo until the chin sits on the chin line, then zoom until the top of the head falls inside the green band. Keep the eyes level and the nose on the centre line.
How to make a passport photo at home
You need a sharp, evenly lit photo of your face taken straight on, against a plain light wall. A phone at arm’s length from a friend works better than a selfie.
- Choose the country and document. The guide, the photo size and the source of the rule change with it.
- Choose your photo. It opens in this page only; nothing is uploaded.
- Drag the photo until your chin sits on the red line, then pinch or tap + and − until the top of your head lands in the green band and your eyes in the blue one.
- Tap Create photo and sheet, then download the single photo for an online form or the 10 x 15 cm sheet to print at a photo lab.
How I tested it
For the runs on this page I used a public-domain portrait: NASA’s 2020 official photo of astronaut Megan McArthur by Robert Markowitz, 1246 × 1746 pixels. It is a studio shot on a white background, close to what a passport office wants, apart from the broad smile, which every preset here would reject. I used it for geometry only.
With the Slovenian preset the photo first fills the frame and her head is far too small. Five taps on + and a 13 mm drag down put her chin on the line, the top of her hair inside the green band and her eyes in the blue band. The download was 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI, 48 KB, and the sheet 1181 × 1772 px with six photos, 310 KB.
The US square needed no zoom at all: her head already measured inside the allowed inch to inch and three-eighths. Dragging her chin onto the line, though, opened a thin white strip at the top, because the original is cropped tight above her hair, and the tool said so. On a white background, which the State Department asks for anyway, the strip disappears. The photo came out at 600 × 600 px at 300 DPI, 56 KB; the 4 x 6 inch sheet held six of them in 1200 × 1800 px, 336 KB.
The nine presets and their sources
I read every rule at its source on the date shown. Rules change, so follow the link before an important application. Where a rule gives the head as a share of the photo, the table converts it to millimetres: 70-80 % of a 45 mm photo is 31.5-36 mm.
The head size decides, not just the photo size
Every office on the list measures the face from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, and a photo of the right outer size with a head that is too small or too large is rejected just the same. That is why the tool shows a guide instead of a crop box: the red line is where the chin goes, the green band is where the top of the head may end for the allowed head heights, and the blue band or dashed line marks the eyes.
Slovenia is the strictest here: the head must fill 32 to 36 mm of the 45, and the eyes must sit between half and seven tenths of the height, measured from the bottom. China fixes the gap above the head at 3 to 5 mm instead. Where a rule gives no eye position, the dashed line sits halfway up the head, where adult eyes are, as a guide for keeping the head level.
Background and light
The tool does not replace or whiten backgrounds. Cutting a person out cleanly around hair needs a large model that cannot run reliably on every phone, and a bad cut-out is a common reason for a rejected photo. Canada even forbids any change to the background. So the background in your download is the one in your photo.
What works is simple: stand half a metre to a metre in front of a plain white or light grey wall, face a window or two soft lights so both sides of the face are lit, and let someone else take the photo from about 1.5 m with a slight zoom. A plain wall in daylight beats any later editing.
Printing the sheet at the right size
Both downloads carry a DPI tag, so a lab or print dialog that respects it prints them at the real size. Order or print the sheet at 100 %, never with fit to page or fill, and check one photo with a ruler before you cut. The 10 x 15 cm sheet holds six 35 x 45 mm photos with thin grey lines to cut along.
Two squares of 2 x 2 inches are wider than 10 cm, so the US and Canadian presets start with the 4 x 6 inch sheet, where the photos touch edge to edge. The Slovenian rule asks for a print of at least 600 dpi; choose 600 DPI before you create the sheet if you hand the photo in on paper.
When a home-made photo is not accepted
Some offices no longer take a photo you print yourself. Since 1 May 2025 German passports and ID cards use a photo taken digitally at the office or by a photo service provider. Canada wants passport photos from a commercial photographer, who writes the studio’s name and the date on the back of one. A UK online application asks for the original, uncropped digital photo, and the Chinese online visa form has its own digital size.
For those, use the preset to check a photo before you go, or for the many other forms, permits and cards that still take a printed 35 x 45 mm photo.
Tips for better results
- Keep a neutral face with the mouth closed; a smile like the one in my test portrait is refused everywhere on the list.
- Take glasses off. The US does not allow them, and reflections cause rejections elsewhere.
- Keep hair away from your eyes; every source on the list asks to see both eyes clearly.
- Use a photo with more room above the head than you think; tight crops leave white edges at passport proportions.
- If the tool warns that the photo looks soft, step closer or use the camera’s main lens instead of zooming in later.
Privacy
Your photo never leaves your device. The guide, the photo and the print sheet are made in your browser, and nothing is uploaded or stored.
Frequently asked questions
Will the office accept a photo made with this tool?
The size, head height and eye position follow the official rule of each country, checked on the date in the table. Acceptance still depends on your photo itself: neutral expression, sharp focus, even light and a plain background. Offices that require a studio or their own camera, such as Germany and Canada for passports, will not take it.
Can the tool make my background white?
No. Removing a background cleanly around hair cannot be done reliably in every browser, and a visible cut-out often leads to rejection. Canada forbids background edits outright. Take the photo against a plain white or light grey wall instead, and the background will already be right.
What size are the files?
At 300 DPI a 35 x 45 mm photo is 413 x 531 pixels and a 2 x 2 inch photo 600 x 600 pixels. The 10 x 15 cm sheet is 1181 x 1772 pixels. The Indian preset gives the 630 x 810 pixels its guideline asks for. All files are JPEGs with the DPI tag set.
Why does the US preset use a 4 x 6 inch sheet?
Two 2 x 2 inch photos side by side measure 101.6 mm, more than the 100 mm width of a 10 x 15 cm print, so only two fit. A 4 x 6 inch print holds six, edge to edge. You can still switch the sheet to 10 x 15 cm.
Does the tool find my face automatically?
No, you align it by hand. Browsers do not offer a face detector by default, and I did not want to send your photo to a server to find it. Dragging the chin onto the line and zooming to the green band takes a few seconds and keeps the result in your control.
Related tools
- Image Cropper: Crop images to exact ratios or popular preset sizes.
- Work out how large your photo can print: Convert pixels and print dimensions; change JPEG DPI tags.
- Image Resizer: Resize images by pixels, percentage or longest side.