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Getting your photo and signature to the size an exam form asks for

Every exam and application sets its own photo and signature rules, and rejects uploads that do not match. This guide gives you a method that works for any of them. The figures in it are examples only: always take your numbers from the official notification of the form you are filling, because they change from year to year.

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Always check the official notification

The size, the file size, the file format and the background are different for every exam, and often change between one year's notice and the next. Nothing on this page, or on any website that lists them, replaces the instructions printed with your form. Copy the figures from there, then use the tools to meet them.

What to write down before you start

  • The photo: size in pixels or in centimetres, a range for the file size (for example "20 to 50 KB"), and the format (JPG or JPEG).
  • The signature: the same three things, plus whether it must be signed on white paper with a dark pen.
  • Whether the photo needs a plain white or light background and whether a date or name has to be printed on it.
  • The wording for what is refused, so you can check for it at the end.

The photo, in three steps

Take or choose a portrait on a plain light background. If the notice gives a size in millimetres or centimetres, open Passport photo maker, set the size, and type the largest file size into "Keep the file under". If it gives pixels and KB, open Form photo resizer and type the pixels, the largest size and, if there is one, the smallest size. It cuts the picture to the exact pixels and saves the best quality that fits, in one step.

Resize first and compress second, which is the order that tool uses. The other way round, you compress a large picture and then shrink it, which gives a worse picture at the same file size.

The signature

  1. Sign with a dark pen on plain white paper, in good light, and photograph it flat, straight on.
  2. Crop close to the signature, so the page margins do not take up most of the picture.
  3. Add it to Form photo resizer, type the pixels and the KB sizes from the notice, and choose "add white margins", so the signature is not cut or stretched.
  4. If the notice also gives a smallest size that a small plain signature cannot reach, tick the box that pads the file up to it. The picture is not changed.
  5. Open the result and check that the signature is still dark and sharp.

Common reasons an upload is refused

  • "File too large" or "too small": most forms have a minimum as well as a maximum. Check both.
  • "Invalid dimensions": the form wants exact pixels, not just a similar shape. Use the exact size options.
  • "Invalid format": save as JPG (not HEIC, which iPhones use, and not PNG), unless the notice says otherwise. HEIC to JPG converts it.
  • A photo of a printed photo, or a screenshot: take a new one. Many forms cannot tell, but offices can.

Try the tools