Passport Photo Maker

Three sizes cover most applications, and they are not interchangeable

The US passport photo is 2 by 2 inches, 51 by 51 mm, with the head 25 to 35 mm from chin to crown, which is 50 to 69% of the frame height, on a plain white or off-white background, taken within the last 6 months. The Schengen visa photo is 35 by 45 mm with a much larger head, 32 to 36 mm, or 70 to 80% of the height, under the EU Visa Code and ICAO Document 9303. 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. A 35 by 45 mm photo reused for a US application fails on size, and a US photo reused for Schengen fails on head proportion, even though both are "passport photos".

Pixel size follows from print size and DPI: pixels = millimetres / 25.4 x 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 set their own windows on top of that: US online renewal uploads must be between 54 KB and 10 MB, and some portals cap pixels or file size differently, so export at 300 DPI and check the form's own limits before uploading. The print sheet uses the same arithmetic: a 4 by 6 inch sheet at 300 DPI is 1200 by 1800 pixels, and it fits eight 35 by 45 mm photos (4 across, 2 down), six 2 by 2 inch photos (3 across, 2 down), or three 40 by 60 mm photos, with cut lines between them.