Passport photo sizes that actually pass: US 2x2, Schengen 35x45 and Saudi 40x60

The size of the photo is the easy part, and it is also the part most people get wrong by reusing one photo for every country. The US passport photo is 2 by 2 inches, 51 by 51 mm, with the head 25 to 35 mm from chin to crown. The Schengen visa photo is 35 by 45 mm with a much larger head, 32 to 36 mm, which is 70 to 80% of the frame height. The Saudi domestic passport photo is 40 by 60 mm on a pure white background, also with a large head at about 70 to 80% of the height. The free Cubbbix Passport Photo Maker crops to each of these, shows a dashed head band for the size you picked, and builds a 4 by 6 inch print sheet, all in your browser.

Pixel size follows from print size and DPI, and the page shows the arithmetic instead of hiding it: pixels equal millimetres divided by 25.4, times DPI. At 300 DPI the US photo is 600 by 600 pixels (2 inches times 300, using the exact 50.8 mm), the Schengen photo is 413 by 531 pixels, and the Saudi photo is 472 by 709 pixels. Online forms add their own windows on top of that: US online renewal uploads must be between 54 KB and 10 MB. Export at 300 DPI, then check the form's own limits, because a portal cap is a separate rule from the print size.

Figure 1: The three sizes to scale. The US square, the Schengen portrait and the Saudi tall portrait are not interchangeable, and neither are their head bands.

Head height is the rule people miss

Most rejected ID photos are the right outer size with the wrong head size. Too far from the camera and the head is small in the frame; too close and the crown is cropped. Chin to crown means the top of the skull, not the hairline, and the bottom of the chin, not facial hair below it. The page draws a dashed band for the size you picked: for Schengen that band is 32 to 36 mm, which on a 45 mm tall photo means the head must fill almost the whole height, leaving only a small margin above it. For the US photo the band is wider in relative terms, 25 to 35 mm on a 51 mm frame, or 50 to 69% of the height. That difference is why a US head that looks fine is too small for Schengen.

The tool cannot measure your head from pixels, and it says so on the page. The band is a positioning guide, not a measurement. Use it, then check the result against your own face before printing: crown inside the top of the band, chin at the bottom of it, face centred, both eyes open, facing the camera. A crop is only one rule among many. The photo must also be recent, within 6 months for US and Schengen, on a plain white or off-white background, with no glasses for a US passport unless a doctor's note covers it, and unedited beyond cropping. The tool does not remove a background or change clothes, so start from a photo taken against a plain light wall.

Figure 2: Left, a head too small for the Schengen band. Right, the same frame with the head filling the 32 to 36 mm band. Same outer size, different result.

Print sheet maths, worked out

A 4 by 6 inch sheet is 152.4 by 101.6 mm. Divide each side by the photo size and round down. For 35 by 45 mm that gives 4 across and 2 down, 8 copies. For 2 by 2 inch (50.8 mm) it gives 3 across and 2 down, 6 copies. For 40 by 60 mm it gives 3 across and 1 down, 3 copies. The page draws the sheet with dashed cut lines between copies, and the one rule that matters at the printer is scale: print at 100%, not fit to page, or every copy shrinks and the sizes are wrong. A print shop that scales to fit has undone the whole crop.

One warning about Saudi sizes, because the guides do not fully agree. Every guide agrees on 40 by 60 mm and a pure white background, and on a large head at about 70 to 80% of the height, which is 42 to 48 mm. One guide gives a 38 mm minimum head height instead. The page presets the 42 to 48 mm band and lets you edit it, and the honest advice is to confirm the current rule with Jawazat or Absher before you apply, because a consulate or passport office page beats any tool page, including this one.

Figure 3: A 4 by 6 inch sheet holds eight 35 by 45 mm photos, six 2 by 2 inch photos, or three 40 by 60 mm photos. Print at 100% scale.

Questions people ask