How to make a passport size photo with your phone
Stand in front of a plain, light wall and have someone take your photo at eye level. Then open Resize photo to KB, choose Passport photo, 3.5 × 4.5 cm, pick the size in KB the form allows, and press Resize it.
Resize photo to KBFree. Nothing is uploaded.
How to do it
- Stand a step in front of a plain, light wall, facing a window or soft daylight.
- Have someone hold the phone at your eye level, an arm’s length or two away, and take a few photos.
- Open Resize photo to KB and add the best one.
- Choose Passport photo, 3.5 × 4.5 cm, and pick the size in KB the form allows.
- Press Resize it, check the face is centred and sharp, and save it.
The rules vary, and the form is the one to follow
Offices ask for different things in a photo: the colour of the background, how much of the head and shoulders shows, whether glasses are allowed, a plain expression, how recent it must be. Some want a printed photo, others an upload with a limit in KB and sometimes a size in pixels. Those rules belong to the form, and they change, so read them where you apply.
This guide covers taking a clean, evenly lit photo that suits most of them, and making it the shape and weight you choose. The tool cannot check a photo against any office’s rules, and it does not claim to; it cuts, sizes and saves what you give it.
Taking the photo
Find a plain wall in white, off-white or light grey, with nothing on it behind your head. Stand a step away from it, so your shadow does not fall on the wall behind you. Face a window or stand in open shade: soft daylight from the front lights the face evenly, while a bulb overhead leaves dark eyes and a shiny forehead.
Turn the flash off; it flattens the face, leaves glare on skin and glasses, and can make eyes red. Have someone else take it with the phone’s main camera, held upright at your eye level and straight, not tilted up or down. Keep your face in the middle of the frame with space above your head and around your shoulders, because the tool cuts the passport shape from the middle. Take several and pick the one where you are sharpest and looking straight at the camera.
What Passport photo does
It cuts the middle of your photo to the passport shape, 3.5 wide by 4.5 tall, and makes it 413 × 531 pixels, which is 3.5 × 4.5 cm at 300 dots per inch. A photo that has fewer pixels than that is never stretched to fit; it keeps its own, in the same shape, and the result line says so.
Then it is saved as a JPEG at the best quality that fits under the KB you picked. If 413 × 531 pixels cannot fit under that limit and still look right, it is made a little smaller in pixels, and the result line says that too, with the size it ended up. Any details the phone hid in the photo, such as the place it was taken, are left out.
Because the cut comes from the middle, a face near one edge of the photo can end up cut off. If that happens, crop the photo in your phone’s gallery first, roughly to a tall shape with your face in the centre, then add the cropped one.
When the form gives pixels instead
Some forms state a width and height in pixels rather than centimetres. Choose Width × height in pixels and type the two numbers exactly as the form gives them. The photo is cut from the middle to that shape and made exactly that size. If those pixels cannot fit under the KB you chose and stay clear, the result says so rather than quietly changing the size: try the next size up in KB if the form allows it.
A worked example
An online application asks for a recent colour photo with a light background, under 50 KB, as a JPG. Take three or four photos against a white wall by a window, and pick the sharpest. Open Resize photo to KB, add it, choose Passport photo, 3.5 × 4.5 cm, pick 50 KB and press Resize it.
The result line reads something like passport shape, 413 × 531 px, under 50 KB. Open the saved picture to check your face is centred with a little space above the head, then upload the file whose name ends with (under 50 KB). If the same office also wants a PDF of your documents, Images to PDF and Scan make those on the phone too.
Questions people ask
Will this photo be accepted?
No tool can promise that. Offices set their own rules on background, size, framing and expression, and they differ. Follow the form’s instructions; the tool makes the shape and size you choose.
What colour should the background be?
Whatever the form says. When it says nothing, a plain white or light grey wall with no shadow is the usual choice.
Can the tool remove or change the background?
No. It cuts, resizes and saves the photo as it is, so take it against a plain wall in the first place.
Why is my photo smaller than 413 × 531 pixels?
Either the original had fewer pixels, and the tool never stretches a photo, or 413 × 531 could not fit under the KB you chose. The result line says which.
Can I get it printed?
Yes. The saved photo is 413 × 531 pixels, which is 3.5 × 4.5 cm at 300 dpi. Ask a photo shop to print it at 3.5 × 4.5 cm.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. It is cut and sized in your browser, on your phone. For photos and signatures under a size, see compress a photo to 20 KB or 50 KB.
Your file stays on your device. Foolscap does the work inside your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is nothing for anyone to keep. How you can check