How to use the Passport Photo Maker tool
- 1
Add your photo
Choose a photo taken against a plain white or light wall. JPG, PNG, WebP and iPhone HEIC photos all work.
- 2
Pick the country or size
Select a preset such as US 2×2 in, UK, Schengen, India or Pakistan, or enter a custom size from your form.
- 3
Line up the head guide
Drag, zoom and straighten until your chin and the top of your head sit on the guide lines and your face fills the oval.
- 4
Download
Save a digital JPG for online forms, or a 4×6 in, 5×7 in, A4 or Letter print sheet as JPG or PDF.
Why use KBSnap’s Passport Photo Maker?
Official size presets
US, UK, Schengen/EU, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, China visa and the standard 35×45 mm, plus any custom size.
Head-size guide
Crown and chin lines and a face oval, set for each country, show exactly how large your head should be.
Print sheets with cut guides
Fit as many copies as possible on 4×6 in, 5×7 in, A4 or US Letter paper, saved as JPG or PDF.
Digital photo for uploads
Download a 300 DPI JPG and set a maximum file size in KB for portals with upload limits.
Straighten and fine-tune
Rotate a slightly tilted photo and make small brightness and contrast corrections.
Private and free
Your photo is processed on your own device – no upload, no account, no watermark.
Make a passport size photo at home
A photo studio does three things: it takes a well-lit picture against a plain background, crops it so your head is the right size, and prints it at the exact dimensions. Your phone and a light-coloured wall can handle the first part. This passport photo maker does the rest – the cropping, the head-size check and the print layout.
It works for passports, visas, residence permits, ID cards and forms that ask for a “passport size photo”. Pick a country preset and the frame and head-size guide are set for you.
One thing it does not do is remove or replace the background. Whatever is behind you in the photo ends up in the final picture, so the background has to be right when you take the shot.
How to take a good passport photo with your phone
- Stand in front of a plain white or light wall – no patterns, doors, picture frames or furniture behind you. If your walls are coloured, hang a smooth white sheet or tape up a large piece of white card.
- Use soft, even light. Daylight from a window in front of you is ideal. Avoid a single ceiling bulb and the flash.
- Step away from the wall – about a metre is enough – so your shadow falls behind you rather than on the wall.
- Ask someone else to take it from about 1.2–1.5 metres (4–5 feet) away, holding the phone at your eye level and using the normal 1× lens. Arm’s-length selfies distort the face and are rarely straight.
- Keep a neutral expression with your mouth closed, eyes open and looking straight at the lens. A few countries allow a natural smile, but neutral is the safe choice.
- Remove glasses where the rules require it (the US, for example, no longer accepts them), along with hats and headphones. Push hair away from your eyes and the edges of your face.
- Wear something that contrasts with the wall, so your shoulders don’t blend into a white background.
- Leave space around you – head, shoulders and room above your head – so there’s enough picture to crop.
Take several shots and keep the sharpest, most evenly lit one. Turn off portrait mode and beauty filters, and use the original from your camera roll – screenshots and forwarded photos are compressed and print soft.
Using the crop guide
After you add a photo, the frame takes the shape of the size you chose and a guide appears on top: a crown line, a chin line and a face oval. The gap between the lines reflects the head-height range for that country – 25–35 mm on a US photo, for example, or 29–34 mm on a UK one.
- Drag the photo so your face sits in the middle of the oval.
- Zoom until your chin and the top of your head line up with the guide lines. If you can’t zoom out far enough, the photo was taken too close – take another with more space around you.
- Straighten a tilted photo until your eyes are level.
- Brightness and contrast can rescue a photo that came out slightly dark. Keep changes small: authorities reject photos that look edited, and some, such as the UK and Canada, ask for unaltered photos.
Passport and visa photo sizes in the tool
| Preset | Photo size | Head height (chin to crown) | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States – passport & visa | 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) | 25–35 mm (1–1⅜ in) | White |
| United Kingdom – passport | 35 × 45 mm | 29–34 mm | Light grey or cream |
| Schengen / EU – visa & passport | 35 × 45 mm | 32–36 mm | Plain light, often light grey |
| Canada – passport | 50 × 70 mm | 31–36 mm | White or light |
| Australia – passport | 35 × 45 mm | 32–36 mm | White or light grey |
| India – passport | 35 × 45 mm | 32–36 mm | White |
| India – visa / OCI | 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) | 25–35 mm | White |
| Pakistan – passport & visa | 35 × 45 mm | 32–36 mm | White |
| China – visa | 33 × 48 mm | 28–33 mm | White |
| Standard 35 × 45 mm (ICAO) | 35 × 45 mm | 32–36 mm | White or light |
For detailed rules, see the country pages for the US, UK, India, Pakistan, Canada and the Schengen visa. If your document isn’t listed, choose the custom size and enter the width and height from the official instructions.
Requirements change from time to time, so always confirm the current rules on the official government or embassy website before you apply.
Printing: a 4×6 photo sheet or A4 at home
The print sheet places as many copies of your photo as fit on the paper you choose, with thin cut guides, and saves it as a JPG or PDF.
4×6 in sheet at a photo kiosk or print shop
A 4×6 in print (10 × 15 cm, also called a 6×4 or 4R print) is the most reliable option, because kiosks and print shops use real photo paper. Download the 4×6 sheet as JPG and order a standard 4×6 print. Switch off any “fill”, “crop to fit” or “auto-enhance” option so the sheet isn’t scaled, then cut along the guides.
A4 or US Letter on a home printer
Download the A4 or Letter sheet as PDF and print it at 100% / Actual size – never “Fit to page”, which shrinks the photos. Use glossy or matte photo paper and the printer’s best quality setting, and let the ink dry before cutting. Measure one photo with a ruler first: it should match the preset exactly, for example 35 × 45 mm.
Some authorities expect a professional-quality print, so check the rules before printing at home.
Digital photo or printed photo?
Digital photo: a single JPG at 300 DPI for online passport renewals, visa portals, e-visas and job or university applications. If the form has a file-size limit, enter it as the maximum KB before downloading. If it asks for exact pixel dimensions, adjust them with the Image Resizer, and use Compress Image to shrink the file further.
Printed photo: needed for paper application forms, embassy appointments and many in-person offices.
Some online services want something other than a cropped passport photo – the UK online passport service, for example, asks for a larger, uncropped picture and crops it itself. Always follow the form’s upload instructions. Need a signature too? The Signature Resizer sizes one just as privately.
When you don’t need (or can’t use) a home-made photo
Check this before you start:
- India: Passport Seva Kendras take your photo at the appointment, so most passport applications filed there don’t need a printed photo.
- Pakistan: photos for new passports are normally captured at the passport office.
- Canada: passport photos must be taken by a commercial photographer, with the studio’s details on the back.
For most visas, many other passports and everyday forms, a photo you take yourself is fine – the official instructions will say if it isn’t.
Your photo stays on your device
Many online passport photo services upload your face to their servers. Here, the cropping, print layout and PDF are created in your browser on your own device. Your photo isn’t uploaded or stored, and hidden location data in the original file is removed when the new image is saved.