How to Make a Passport Photo at Home: Sizes, Head Rules and Printing That Passes

A passport photo looks like the simplest photo in the world — until yours comes back rejected for a shadow, the wrong head size or glasses you forgot to take off, and your whole application stalls. The paid counters at drugstores charge $15 or more for two prints, and the popular apps charge around $9 just to download the file. Our passport photo maker does the sizing and printing layout for free, in your browser, with country presets and a head-size guide — no watermark and no download fee. This guide walks through taking the shot, framing it to the official ratios, printing a sheet that measures correctly, and the rejection rules that catch most people out.

How to Make a Passport Photo, Step by Step

1. Take a clean headshot first. Stand against a plain, light wall in bright, even daylight, about a step away from the wall so your shadow does not fall on it, and face the light source. Keep a neutral expression with your mouth closed and both eyes open, and take your glasses off. Have someone photograph you from about 1.5 metres away for the most natural proportions — an arm's-length selfie slightly distorts the face. If the file is an iPhone HEIC photo, run it through our HEIC converter first, because some browsers and application portals cannot open HEIC at all. 2. Pick your country and frame your face. Upload the photo, choose your document preset, then drag to reposition and zoom until your head fills the dashed oval. Most countries require the head to fill 70–80% of the photo height, with the eyes roughly one-third down from the top. 3. Download and print. Download the single photo for a digital application, or build the 4×6 print sheet with 6–8 copies at 300 DPI and print it at 100% scale — the printing section below explains why that setting matters more than the printer you use.

The Sizes That Matter, Country by Country

There is no single worldwide passport size, which is exactly why guessing with a generic crop fails. A US passport photo is 2×2 inches (51×51 mm), and inside that square the head itself — chin to crown — must measure between 1 and 1⅜ inches (25–35 mm), centred, with both edges of the shoulders visible. The UK and Schengen visa standard is a rectangle, 35×45 mm. Canada is larger at 50×70 mm, and China uses 33×48 mm. Submit a US square to a UK application and it is the wrong shape before anyone even looks at your face. The maker removes that whole class of error: pick the preset and the canvas, the guide oval and the exported file all switch to that document's exact dimensions. What the tool cannot choose for you is the content of the photo — background, expression and lighting stay your job, and they are where most rejections actually happen.

The Rules That Get Passport Photos Rejected

The rejection list is short and predictable, and it is drawn from the standard rules used by the US State Department and most other passport authorities. Glasses off: the US has not accepted glasses since November 2016, except with a signed medical note, and many countries follow the same rule. No shadows: shadows across the face or on the wall behind you are the single most common rejection — stand a step from the wall and face the light. Neutral expression, mouth closed: a natural, slight closed-mouth expression passes; a broad grin with visible teeth often does not. Recent and unedited: the photo must be taken within the last 6 months and look like you now, with no filters, beauty modes or background-removal edits — which is why this tool crops and sizes your real photo rather than altering it. Plain background, nobody else in frame: no other people or objects, including the hands holding a baby for an infant's photo. Run this list against your shot before you print, not after you submit.

Worked Example: From Selfie to a 2×2 Print

The tool page works this example for a US passport. You need a 2×2 inch photo, white background, head 1 to 1⅜ inches tall. Take the photo against a plain white wall in daylight — no flash shadows, neutral expression, both eyes open. Upload it, and the guide crop locks the head to the official ratio while the preset locks the frame to 2×2 inches. The maker then lays out multiple copies on a standard 4×6 sheet at 300 DPI. Print that sheet at any drugstore photo kiosk for about 35 cents — versus $15 or more at a passport photo counter — cut out one 2×2 square, and keep the spares for visas, ID cards and other applications. One honest limit from the tool page: the maker sizes and frames correctly, but it cannot fix a bad source. A blurry shot, a busy background, shadows across the face or a tilted head will still be rejected, so retake rather than rescue. And always confirm the exact size against the official requirements for your specific application — the issuing authority has the final word.

Printing Without Ruining the Size

More home-printed passport photos fail at the printer than at the camera. The sheet is exactly 4×6 inches at 300 DPI, so it must be printed at 100% — labelled 'actual size' in most print dialogs. The tempting alternative, 'fit to page', silently rescales the whole sheet to your printer's margins, and every photo on it shrinks by a few percent: enough for a head that measured 1¼ inches on screen to fall below the 1-inch minimum in print. Print on photo paper where you can, let the sheet dry before cutting, and cut precisely on the edges with a trimmer or careful scissors. If you also need a clean digital headshot for a profile or listing rather than an official document, our background remover is the right tool for that job — just never use its edited output for a passport, where background edits are grounds for rejection.

Common Mistakes

Leaving glasses on. It is the easiest rule to forget and, for US applications since 2016, an automatic rejection outside rare medical exceptions. Printing with 'fit to page'. The photo was correct in the file and wrong on paper; always print at 100% or actual size and measure one cut photo with a ruler. Shooting against a 'light-ish' busy background. A bookshelf or patterned wallpaper is not a plain background, however pale it is. Move to the plainest wall in the house. Using an old or filtered photo. Anything older than 6 months, or smoothed by a beauty filter, risks rejection — and a rejected photo delays the entire application, not just the photo step. Cropping by eye without the guide. Head height is a measured ratio (70–80% of the frame), not a vibe; use the dashed oval and the country preset instead of guessing.

Frequently Asked Questions

More guides from ToolNest