How to make a passport photo at home

Size and position a portrait to official measurements, then print a sheet — with your photo staying on your own device.

Photo booths are expensive for what they are, and uploading a picture of your own face to a website to have it cropped is a poor trade. The cropping itself is not difficult — it is arithmetic about millimetres — but the rules are fussy enough that guessing usually means a rejected application.

Step-by-step

1. Take the photo properly. Face the camera straight on with a neutral expression, in even light, against a plain wall. Get someone else to take it — arm's length distorts facial proportions.
2. Open the tool. Go to Image Tools and choose "ID Photo".
3. Pick the document. The preset sets the physical size and shows the required head height and background.
4. Position the face. Drag the photo and zoom until the eyes sit inside the blue band and the top of the head is within the green zone. Those two guides encode most of what the rules are actually asking for.
5. Download. Take the digital file for online applications, or the 4×6 sheet for printing — it tiles multiple copies with cut guides.

Printing it correctly

This is where home-made photos usually fail. Print the 4×6 sheet at 100% or "Actual size" — never "Fit to page", which silently rescales everything and makes a correctly sized photo the wrong size. Use photo paper at a print shop or a photo printer; ordinary office paper is generally rejected. Measure one photo with a ruler before you cut: it should match the millimetres shown in the tool.

What the tool cannot judge

It handles dimensions, head size and eye position. It does not and cannot assess expression, whether your glasses cause glare, whether a head covering is acceptable, shadows on the background, or whether the background is uniform enough. Those are the other half of the rules, and they are on you. The background replacement option is a convenience for a digital submission — many authorities require the background to be genuinely plain in the original photograph, not made plain afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Is my photo uploaded?

No. A photo of your face attached to an identity document is about as sensitive as personal data gets, and it stays in your browser.

Which countries are included?

The United States, United Kingdom, Schengen/EU, Canada, Australia, India, China and Japan, each with its published measurements and a source reference. If yours isn't listed, a country with the same physical size — 35×45 mm covers a great many — will produce the correct dimensions, but verify the head-height rule yourself.

Can I use a photo from my camera roll?

If it was taken face-on against a plain background with even lighting, yes. A holiday snap cropped tight rarely passes — the lighting and angle give it away.