India Passport Photo Size: 4.5 x 3.5cm, and 630 x 810 pixels online

Indian documentation states the size in centimetres — 4.5 by 3.5 — where most other authorities use millimetres. The rectangle is identical to the 45 x 35mm the UK, Australia and the Schengen states work from; only the notation differs. If a form asks for 4.5 x 3.5cm and a photo lab quotes 45 x 45mm, they are not describing the same thing and the lab has it wrong.

The height is the larger number in both notations, which is worth stating because "3.5 x 4.5" is written as often as "4.5 x 3.5" and a rotated print is a rejected print. Portrait orientation, always.

Where India departs from its neighbours on this site is how the head is specified. Rather than a millimetre range from chin to crown, the guidance is proportional: the distance from the top of the head to the chin should be about 80 to 85 per cent of the image height. That is a higher fill than the Schengen 70–80 per cent, so a photograph composed to European proportions reads as slightly too distant here.

Applying online introduces a second, stricter set of numbers. The portal wants a JPEG at 630 by 810 pixels weighing less than 250 kilobytes. Both bounds are enforced by the upload form rather than by a person, so a file that misses either is refused immediately with no opportunity to explain.

Six hundred and thirty by eight hundred and ten is the same 35:45 proportion at a specific scale, so a correctly cropped photograph only needs resizing rather than recomposing. Do the crop first and the resize second — resizing to 630 x 810 and then cropping inside it throws away resolution you were required to keep.

The 250KB ceiling is the part that catches people. A sharp 630 x 810 photograph straight out of a phone can easily exceed it, and the fix is JPEG quality rather than dimensions. Dropping quality to around 80 per cent typically halves the file with no difference visible at this size; reducing the pixel dimensions instead would put you under the required 630 x 810 and fail the other check.

For a fresh passport, biometric capture happens at the Passport Seva Kendra during your appointment — your photograph and fingerprints are taken there by the officer handling the file. The photograph you supply beforehand is supporting documentation rather than the image that ends up in the booklet.

That distinction explains a lot of confused advice online. People report that they were photographed at the centre and conclude the specification does not matter; others report an upload being rejected and conclude the centre does not photograph anyone. Both happen, at different stages, and the requirement to supply a compliant photograph with the application stands regardless.

Certain routes — annexures, minors' applications handled by a parent, and some renewals and police-verification documents — do rely on the physical prints you bring. Take more than you think you need; a strip is inexpensive and a second trip is not.

In India the phrase has escaped the passport entirely. A passport size photo is the default unit of identification for competitive exam forms, college admissions, employment paperwork, bank KYC, government scheme enrolment and a hundred other counters, and most of the people searching for the dimensions are not applying for a passport at all.

For those uses the 4.5 x 3.5cm rectangle is the convention, and the surrounding rules are usually looser — a smile is generally tolerated, backgrounds vary between white and light blue, and some forms want the photograph signed across the bottom edge. The passport rules are the strict end of a spectrum rather than a universal standard.

Read the specific form. Where it is silent, the passport specification is the safe default precisely because it is the strictest one in common use, and a photograph that satisfies Passport Seva satisfies almost anything else that asks.

It will not generate a passport photograph. A face produced by an image model belongs to nobody, and attaching it to an identity application is fraud. That holds regardless of which country the application is in, and it is the one request this site declines outright.

For a real photograph the mechanical work is genuinely well suited to browser tools. The image cropper takes it to the 35:45 proportion with the head measuring 80 to 85 per cent of the frame height, the image resizer lands it on 630 x 810 pixels exactly, and the image compressor brings the JPEG under 250KB without touching the dimensions. Nothing is uploaded — the file stays on your device throughout, which matters more than usual when the file is a photograph of your face attached to a government application.

Beyond documents, LaFoto is an AI image generator for original pictures made from a written description — the illustration, product shot or background you would otherwise have to licence. That is where a generative model belongs, and an identity document is where it does not.