Photo & Signature Size for Every Indian Exam and Government Form

Passport size photo size in cm, mm, inches and pixels

A standard Indian passport-size photo is 3.5 cm wide × 4.5 cm high — 35 × 45 mm, about 1.38 × 1.77 inches. Printed at 300 DPI that is 413 × 531 pixels. Global Passport Seva uploads use 630 × 810 px, and US passports and visas use 2 × 2 inches (600 × 600 px).

Inside India you don't upload a passport photo at all — it is taken at the Passport Seva Kendra. The pixel sizes matter for exam and job forms that ask for a "passport-size photo", for applications from abroad, and for printing a sheet of photos at a studio.

Width and height are always quoted width first. A photo that is 4.5 cm wide and 3.5 cm tall is the wrong way round — portals that check dimensions reject it.

Make a 35 × 45 mm passport photo →

PAN card photo and signature size in KB

For a PAN application on the Protean (NSDL) portal, the photo is a colour JPEG of 3.5 × 2.5 cm at 200 DPI — 197 × 276 pixels — and at most 20 KB. The signature is 2 × 4.5 cm at 200 DPI (354 × 157 px) and at most 10 KB.

Both limits are maximums, not targets: a 12 KB photo is fine. What gets rejected is a file over the cap, a photo saved at the wrong DPI, or a PNG renamed to .jpg.

Resize a PAN photo →

UPSC photo size

UPSC asks for a JPG photograph of 20–200 KB on a plain white background, with the face covering at least 75% of the frame, both ears visible and eyes open. The photo must not be signed, and UPSC also captures a live photo during the application to match against it.

Because the band has a minimum, a heavily compressed 15 KB photo is rejected just like a 250 KB one. Aim for the upper half of the range — a larger file keeps more detail.

Resize a UPSC photo →

SSC photo and signature size

For SSC exams such as CGL and CHSL, the photo is no longer uploaded — the application captures it live through a webcam or the mySSC app. You upload only the signature: a JPEG of 10–20 KB, about 6.0 cm wide × 2.0 cm high. Some forms still want a passport-size photo for registration.

Live capture needs good light, a plain background, and no cap, mask or glasses. Photographing an old printed photo is detected and rejected.

Resize an SSC signature →

Signature size for online forms

Most Indian exam and government forms want a signature in black or blue ink on white paper, saved as a JPEG of 10–20 KB — some allow 5–50 KB — in a wide box roughly three times as wide as it is tall. Check the exact pixel and KB numbers for your form in the table below.

A signature that is too faint, too small inside the box, or photographed with shadows is the most common rejection. Crop to the ink and whiten the paper before resizing.

Resize a signature →