Uploading Digital Photos
If you plan to take and process your own photo, it is important to understand how digital imaging works. Most photos are printed at between 240dpi (dots per inch) and 720dpi, with a typical setting of 600dpi being used to print at high quality. The “dots” indicate how many drops of ink are put on each inch-long segment of a single line of drops on the paper. In comparison, a computer screen typically only requires 72dpi to display an image at full resolution.
Graphics programs and photo viewers often don’t have an option to set the physical print size of a picture, but work instead in pixels, so some calculation may be needed in order to work out the image size in pixels that will be required. The calculation is
Print Resolution / 2.54 x Dimension in cm
The 2.54 figure is the conversion of inches to centimetres, so our 35mm x 45mm image at 300dpi is calculated like this –
300 / 2.54 x 3.5 = 413px wide
300 / 2.54 x 4.5 = 531px high
Further Information
As well as the physical size of the submitted photo, there are other requirements when applying for a UK Passport. You can find more about this in the article: “How do I take a biometric passport photo?”
In our Passport Photo Generator you can adjust your photo to the correct aspect ratio / size for free and align your face against a biometric template.
