Passport & ID Photo Maker

About this tool

This free passport photo maker takes a photo you already have and crops it to the exact size an official document requires — 2 × 2 inches for a US passport, 35 × 45 mm for the EU, UK, Japan or Korea, and a dozen more. You mark the top of your head and your chin, and it scales the picture so your head is the size the rules demand — so the proportions are right, not just the outer dimensions.

It then builds a print sheet: your photo repeated to fill a 4 × 6 inch, 5 × 7 inch or A4 print, with cut lines. Take that one file to any photo kiosk or print shop and you get a full set of passport photos for the price of a single print.

Everything runs in your browser. Your photo is never uploaded — which matters more here than on most tools, because this one is a picture of your face.

Features

• 15 document presets — US, EU/Schengen, UK, India, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany and more
• Custom size in millimetres for anything not listed
• Draggable head markers — mark your own crown and chin, and the photo is scaled to the required head height for you
• Live head measurement against the document's target, so you can see it is right
• Plain white background by default — replaced on your device, with light grey and light blue also available
• Straighten slider for a slightly tilted photo
• 300 or 600 DPI output
• Print sheet with cut lines, sized for standard photo prints
• No watermark, no sign-up, no payment

Why the head size matters more than the rectangle

Almost everyone who gets a passport photo rejected has the right rectangle and the wrong face inside it. The published rules are not only about the picture's dimensions — they specify how much of that picture your head must fill and where your eyes must sit.

For a US passport the head has to measure between 1 inch and 1 ⅜ inches from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, in a 2-inch-tall photo — so roughly 50–69% of the picture height. Schengen countries are stricter and want more: about 70–80%. Canada is different again, measuring 31–36 mm of head in a 70 mm photo, which is nearer 45%.

That is what the markers on screen are for, and they work the way round that actually suits people. Rather than asking you to judge whether your head fills 70% of a rectangle — which nobody can do by eye — you simply drag the two blue markers onto your own head: the top one to the crown, the bottom one under your chin. You can see where your own head is perfectly well.

The tool then does the arithmetic. Press Fit to my marks and the photo is scaled and shifted so the span you marked lands exactly inside the shaded target band, with your eyes on the dashed line. The readout underneath shows the head height you have as a percentage against the one the document wants, and turns green when it matches. Getting this proportion right is the single biggest reason a homemade photo passes.

What this tool cannot do for you

Worth saying plainly, because no cropping tool can fix these — they are decided when the photo is taken:

• Neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and looking at the camera
• Even lighting with no shadow on your face or behind you
• No glasses for most countries now, including the US and UK
• No hats or head coverings, except for religious reasons worn every day
• A recent photo — usually within the last six months
• Nothing between you and the camera, and no one else in the frame

The background is replaced with plain white by default, which helps with a cluttered room, but it works from the outline it can see. A photo taken against a plain, evenly lit wall will always beat a cutout, and hair against a busy background is exactly where automatic separation looks least convincing. Use it as a rescue, not a plan.

Common uses

• Passport, visa and residence permit applications
• Driving licence, student card, staff pass and travel cards
• Online applications that ask you to upload a photo to a specification
• Printing a full sheet of ID photos for a fraction of a photo booth

How to use it

• Upload a photo of yourself, taken face-on against a plain background
• Pick the document you are applying for — the frame changes to that exact size
• Drag the two blue markers onto the crown of your head and the bottom of your chin
• Press "Fit to my marks" — the photo is scaled and moved so your head is exactly the size the document wants
• Drag the photo to centre yourself, and straighten it if it is slightly tilted
• Change the background if you want grey or blue instead of white, or keep your original
• Download the photo to upload to an online application, or download the print sheet to take to a photo shop

Good to know

• Nothing is uploaded. Your photo, your face and the finished files stay on your device. Background removal runs on your device too
• The editing frame always shows your original photo, even when the background is being replaced — lining a face up is easier against the real picture. The background you chose appears in the preview on the right and in what you download
• The background is set to plain white to begin with, because that is what most documents ask for. The first photo you open downloads the cutout model (~4.6 MB) once; after that it is instant. Switch to "Keep the original" if your photo already has a suitable background
• Print sheets need photo paper. Take the sheet file to a kiosk or shop and print it as a normal photo at its real size — do not let the printer "fit to page", which rescales it and makes every photo the wrong size
• 300 DPI is the printing standard; 600 DPI is sharper and makes a bigger file, useful only if your print shop supports it
• Check the current rules. The presets follow the published specifications, but authorities revise them and each office makes its own decision. This tool sizes your photo — it cannot guarantee acceptance
• Start with a good photo. Cropping cannot add detail, so a sharp, well-lit picture from a modern phone at arm's length beats an old, blurred one
• If your country's online application asks for a file-size limit, run the download through Image Compressor
• Photos are saved as JPG, which is what applications and print shops expect

Related tools

• Remove Background — full control over the cutout before you come back here
• Crop Image — a free-form crop with no document preset
• Image Compressor — meet an upload size limit
• Image Resizer — resize to exact pixel dimensions
• Image Editor — adjust brightness and contrast first