How to make a passport photo at home
Take, crop and print a passport or visa photo from your phone: framing, background, file-size limits and print sheets, plus what to check first.
Updated: 3 November 2026
A passport or visa photo has to follow strict rules, and a studio visit is not always possible. If you are allowed to supply your own photo, you can take one with a phone and prepare it at home. This guide covers taking the picture, preparing the file and printing it.
Check the rules first
Every country and every form has its own requirements for photo size, head size, background, expression, glasses and sometimes who may take the photo, and they change over time. Two sizes you will see often are 35 × 45 mm (used for the UK and the Schengen area) and 51 × 51 mm (the United States), but do not assume yours matches. Read the official instructions from the authority that asked for the photo and follow them rather than any general guide, including this one. Some authorities also require a printed photo from a studio or do not accept edited photos at all.
Take a good photo
- Stand in front of a plain, light wall, a step or two away from it, so your shadow does not fall on it.
- Face a window or a lamp so the light falls evenly on your face. Avoid strong shadows, glare and the flash.
- Ask someone to take it with the camera at eye level and your whole head in the frame. Look straight at the lens with a neutral expression and your mouth closed. Selfies at arm’s length distort the face.
- Keep your face fully visible and follow the authority’s rules on glasses, head coverings and expression.
Crop it to size
Open the photo in the Passport Photo Maker. iPhone HEIC photos work too. Then:
- Choose the photo size, or enter your own in millimetres if your country is not in the list.
- Zoom, move and rotate the picture until your head sits between the guide lines. The guide lines are approximate, so compare them with the official head-size rule.
- Tick the white background option if you need it (see below).
- Download the single photo, or a print sheet with several copies.
Fix the background
If the wall behind you was not plain, the tool can make the background white with an AI step that runs on your device. Check the edges around your hair and shoulders before you use the result, because small AI models can leave rough edges. For a cleaner cut-out of a difficult photo, try the Background Remover and adjust the edge setting, or simply take the photo again against a better wall.
Online forms and printing
Many online applications limit the file size. In the tool you can enter a maximum size in KB, for example 240, and it picks the highest quality that fits. For prints, choose a sheet such as 4 × 6 inches, download it and print it at 100% size (not “fit to page”) on photo paper, then cut along the thin cutting lines. If the file is still too large for a form, the Image Compressor can reduce it further.
What the tool does not do
The tool does not detect faces and does not check that your photo meets any country’s rules. It crops to the size you choose, and everything stays on your device, so nothing is uploaded. The final check is yours: compare the result with the official requirements before you submit or print it.