Headshot & Passport Photo Cropper
Get your ID photo ready in no time. Use our secure cropper to trim your portrait to standard identity document proportions without ever uploading your photo.
Last updated: August 2026
Drop your images here or click to select
Supports JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF
The thing that catches people out about passport photos is that the rule is a proportion, not a size. Take the UK, whose requirements GOV.UK publishes in full: the print must measure 45mm high by 35mm wide, and the image of you from the crown of your head to your chin must be between 29mm and 34mm high. Those two numbers together mean your head has to occupy roughly 64 to 76 percent of the frame height. Miss that band and the photo is rejected no matter how many pixels it has — which is precisely why this is a cropping job and not a resizing one.
Resizing cannot fix a photo where the head is the wrong fraction of the frame, because resizing changes every dimension together and leaves the proportion exactly as it was. Only cropping changes how much of the frame your head fills. That is the operation this page exists for: find the crop where your head lands inside the required band, and the pixel dimensions become a separate, easy problem to solve afterwards.
The numbers themselves are per-country and you must check your own. Passport authorities publish their own specifications and they genuinely differ — in print size, in how head height is measured, and in background colour. GOV.UK is the source for the UK figures quoted here. For anywhere else, go to that country's passport authority directly rather than to a photo-tool guide; specifications change, and a rejected application costs far more than the five minutes of checking.
UK passport photo requirements, as published
A fully worked example of what a passport specification actually constrains. Every row is quoted from GOV.UK. These are the UK's figures and no other country's — they are here to show the shape of the problem, not to be applied elsewhere.
| Requirement | Value | What it means when you crop |
|---|---|---|
| Printed photo size | 45mm high by 35mm wide | A 7:9 frame — taller and narrower than most presets. Crop to that shape first; the millimetres are a printing concern, the ratio is the cropping one. |
| Head height (crown to chin) | 29mm and 34mm | The rule that actually gets photos rejected. Against a 45mm frame this is roughly 64–76% of the height, so the crop has to be judged against your own head, not against the edges of the picture. |
| Background | plain cream or light grey | Cropping cannot change a background — only reframing away from a busy one can. When the wall behind you is wrong, Remove Image Background replaces it with a plain colour before you crop. |
| Digital photo minimum | 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall | A minimum, not a target, and exactly 4:5 — a different ratio from the 7:9 print size, because the digital and print rules are specified separately. Crop for the one you are actually submitting. |
| Digital file size | 50KB and no more than 10MB | Note the lower bound: a file under 50KB is rejected as well as one over 10MB. Over-compressing to "be safe" is a real failure mode — Compress JPG to 50KB lands you at the floor rather than under it. |
Only the UK is tabulated because only the UK's pages could be verified directly. The US, Canadian and Australian passport sites all refuse automated access, and this site does not republish official figures it has not read at the source — check travel.state.gov, canada.ca or passports.gov.au yourself for those.
How to crop a photo to passport proportions
- 1
Start from a plain, front-facing photo
Drop it into the box above. It is processed entirely in your browser — an identity photo is about as sensitive as a personal file gets, and this one never leaves your device.
- 2
Set the frame to your country's ratio
Use free-form and pull a portrait frame to the proportions your authority specifies — 35:45 for the UK. The presets do not include passport ratios because they are country-specific.
- 3
Size the frame against your head, not the photo
Adjust until the distance from the crown of your head to your chin fills the required share of the frame height — for the UK, between roughly two thirds and three quarters. Centre the face and leave even space either side.
- 4
Crop, then meet the file rules
Download the crop, then handle dimensions and file size separately. Resize Photo to Passport Size sets the pixels, and compression brings the file within the accepted range.
Pro tip: Measure the head, then the frame, in that order. Almost every rejected photo is one where the person framed a nice portrait and then checked the dimensions, rather than starting from the head-height rule and building the frame around it. Work the other way: decide where the crown and chin have to sit, place the frame so they land there, and let the composition follow. A photo that satisfies the proportion is easy to make satisfy everything else.
Troubleshooting: If your application was rejected without a clear reason, head height is the most likely cause — it is the requirement people are least aware of and the one a good-looking portrait most often misses. Re-crop against the crown-to-chin measurement rather than adjusting the outer size. If the background is wrong, no crop will fix it; reframe against a plain wall or replace it. If the upload is refused for file size, check both ends of the range — the UK rejects anything under 50KB and no more than 10MB, and over-compression trips the lower bound. And if the photo looks stretched, it was resized into the target dimensions instead of cropped to them.
Once the crop is right, Resize Photo to Passport Size handles the exact pixel dimensions, and Compress JPG to 50KB or Compress JPG to 20KB bring the file within a portal's limits. If the background does not meet the specification, Remove Image Background replaces it with plain white, blue or red. For a less formal portrait with no published rules to satisfy, Crop Image for CV/Resume is the right page, and Crop Photo to 4:3 Ratio covers standard framing.
Frequently asked questions
What size is a passport photo?
It depends on the country, and the outer size is not the hard part. The UK specifies a printed photo of 45mm high by 35mm wide, with the head measuring between 29mm and 34mm from crown to chin. Other countries publish their own figures. Always take them from your own passport authority rather than from a sizing guide.
Why do passport photos specify head height?
Because the face has to be large enough and consistently placed for identity checks, including automated facial comparison at borders. A frame of the right outer size with a small head in it fails that purpose, which is why the head measurement is a separate rule and the one most often missed.
Can I crop an ordinary photo into a passport photo?
Sometimes. Cropping can fix framing and head proportion, but it cannot fix a background that breaks the rules, a head turned away from the camera, harsh shadows, or an expression that is not permitted. If those are right in the original, cropping is often all you need. If they are not, you need a new photo.
What is the difference between cropping and resizing a passport photo?
Cropping changes what is inside the frame, so it changes how much of the frame your head fills — which is the rule that gets photos rejected. Resizing scales everything at once and leaves that proportion untouched. Crop first to satisfy the head-height rule, then resize to reach the required pixel dimensions.
Is my passport photo uploaded to a server here?
No. The crop runs entirely inside your browser on your own device. The photo is never uploaded, stored, or logged, and the tool keeps working with your connection switched off. An identity document photo is exactly the kind of file that should not be sent to someone else's server to be trimmed.
Looking for the full-featured version? Open the main Crop Image tool.
Related Tools & Resources
Passport Photo Resizer – Official Sizes
Getting a headshot ready for a passport or visa application? Resize your photo to standard requirements like 2x2 inches or 3.5x4.5 cm easily and privately.
Compress JPG to 20KB – Free Online Tool
Reduce JPG images to 20KB or less for strict upload limits on application forms and portals. Automatic quality selection, 100% in your browser, free.
Crop Professional Photo for CV and Resume
Crop a professional portrait for your CV or resume in your browser. Your headshot never leaves your device—secure, client-side processing, free and fast.
Crop Image – Full Tool
Interactive cropping with ratio presets, free-form mode, and rotation.
Compress JPG to 50KB – Fast, Free & Private
Get JPG photos under 50KB without ruining them. The quality is picked automatically to hit the target — free, private, browser-based compression.
4:3 Photo Cropper – Classic Ratio
Easily turn your landscape or vertical photos into a classic 4:3 aspect ratio. A quick, browser-based tool for standard framing.