Free Passport Photo Maker & Printable 4x6 Sheet
Make a compliant passport or visa photo and print a full 4 x 6 inch sheet of them at home or at a CVS, Walgreens or Walmart kiosk. Crop to your country's exact size, clean up the background, and download a print-ready sheet — everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. Updated October 9, 2026.
Step 1 — Make your passport photo
Select your country or document, upload a photo, clean up the background, then download a single photo at the exact pixel size. This free passport photo maker never uploads your picture.
The dashed blue box shows the crop that will be applied to match your selected size. Photos are processed locally and never leave your device.
Step 2 — Generate a printable photo sheet
Build a print-ready sheet of identical photos with faint cut lines. A 4 x 6 inch sheet holds six 2 x 2 inch photos (2 columns by 3 rows). Print at 100% scale or "actual size" on photo paper.
How to Take a Compliant Passport Photo at Home
Taking your own passport photo is allowed by the US State Department, UK HM Passport Office and most consulates, and it is far cheaper than paying a store. The secret is not an expensive camera — it is controlling four things: background, lighting, framing and expression. Stand about 50 centimetres (1.5 feet) in front of a plain white or light-grey wall so you do not cast a shadow on it. Face a window for soft, even daylight, or use two lamps placed at 45 degrees either side of the camera so both sides of your face are lit equally. Have the person holding the camera stand about 1.5 metres (5 feet) away so your head, shoulders and upper body fill the frame with a little space above the head. Shoot at the highest resolution your phone allows, keep the phone perfectly level, and take a burst of shots so you can pick one where your eyes are open and your expression is neutral.
When you upload the photo here, the crop guide shows exactly what will be kept once the photo is trimmed to your country's size. Adjust the background with the assisted cleanup button, lift a dark or grey backdrop with the brightness slider, then download. If your first attempt is not perfect, upload another — the tool is free and unlimited, and nothing is stored.
Background and Privacy Requirements
Almost every passport authority requires a plain, light background: pure white for the USA, India, Canada, China, Japan and Australia, and white or light grey for Schengen countries. The UK is the notable exception, accepting cream or light grey for prints and digital photos. Patterns, doors, shelves, plants, other people and hard shadows all cause rejections. If you do not have a white wall, hang a white bedsheet or pin a large sheet of white paper behind you, and stand far enough forward that no wall shadow creeps in behind your head. Avoid flash straight-on, which causes red-eye and a hard shadow; bounced or window light is far safer.
Privacy matters because a passport photo is a biometric identifier. This tool is built so that nothing is uploaded: the crop, the background cleanup, the brightness adjustment and the sheet generation all run in JavaScript and the HTML canvas inside your browser. There is no server round-trip, no account and no stored copy, so you can prepare a sensitive photo on a shared computer without it leaving the machine.
Head-Size and Framing Rules
Head size is the rule most people miss. The USA wants your head, from chin to the top of your head, to measure 25 to 35 millimetres, which is 50 to 69 per cent of the image height. Schengen and Japan want 32 to 36 millimetres (70 to 80 per cent of the frame). The UK wants 29 to 34 millimetres, Canada 31 to 36 millimetres, and China 28 to 33 millimetres. Keep your head centred, look straight into the lens, keep your mouth closed with a neutral expression, and leave a small margin above your hair so the crown is not clipped. Remove hats, headbands, headphones and glasses — only headwear worn daily for religious or medical reasons is allowed, and even then your full face must be visible from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead.
Passport Photo Requirements by Country
The table below lists the print size in millimetres, the background and head-size rules, and the pixel dimensions we use. The millimetre figures are the official printed sizes; the pixel figures are those sizes rendered at 300 DPI, which is the print standard for a sharp photo. Our verified dataset matches the one in the visa photo size guide, and the US digital rules match our DS-160 photo validator.
| Country / document | Print size | Background | Head size | Pixels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 2 x 2 in (51 x 51 mm) | White | 25-35mm (50-69%) | 600x600 |
| UK (printed) | 35 x 45 mm | Cream or light grey | 29-34mm | 413x531 at 300 DPI |
| UK (digital, GOV.UK) | 35 x 45 mm | Cream or light grey | 29-34mm | 600x750 minimum |
| Schengen Area | 35 x 45 mm | White or light grey | 32-36mm (70-80%) | 413x531 |
| Canada | 50 x 70 mm | White | 31-36mm | 591x827 |
| China | 33 x 48 mm | White | 28-33mm | 390x567 |
| Japan | 45 x 45 mm | White | 32-36mm (70-80%) | 531x531 |
| Australia | 35 x 45 mm | White | 32-36mm | 413x531 |
| India | 51 x 51 mm (2 x 2 in) | White | 80% of photo | 600x600 |
How to Print a Passport Photo at CVS, Walgreens or at Home
This is the feature people actually search for, so here is the whole workflow. Once your photo is cropped to the correct size, click Generate printable sheet. The sheet maker packs as many copies as fit: six 2 x 2 inch photos on a 4 x 6 inch sheet, arranged two across and three down, and six 35 x 45 millimetre photos as well. Each copy is separated by a faint dashed cut line so you can trim it cleanly with scissors or a paper trimmer. Download the sheet as a JPEG or PNG.
To print at a pharmacy or big-box store, save the file to your phone or a USB stick and use the self-service photo kiosk at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, Duane Reade or Boots. Choose a standard 4 x 6 inch print, and set the machine to actual size or 100% scale — not fit to page, and not borderless if that option rescales. One 4 x 6 print costs only a few cents and yields six passport photos. To print at home, load a sheet of glossy or matte photo paper, choose a 4 x 6 inch (or A4 or Letter) photo print, select the highest quality, and print at 100% scale. Let the ink dry for a minute, then cut along the dashed lines.
Whatever you use, always measure the result. A correct US photo is exactly 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm); a correct UK or Schengen photo is exactly 35 x 45 millimetres. If the printed photo is even a couple of millimetres small, your printer or kiosk rescaled the image, so turn off fit to page and print again.
Printing Tips: No Scaling, Matte vs Glossy, Photo Paper
Do
- Print at 100% scale or "actual size", in colour, at the highest quality setting.
- Use dedicated photo paper — glossy gives crisp contrast, matte avoids glare for scanners.
- Keep the print uncreased, unmarked and free of fingerprints; handle it by the edges.
- Measure one photo with a ruler and confirm it matches your country's exact size.
- Keep the spare copies — some applications ask for two identical photos.
Do not
- Use "fit to page" or "shrink to fit" — it silently rescales every photo.
- Print on plain copy paper; it looks dull and is often rejected as not photo quality.
- Cut inside the visible photo or leave a white border on the face.
- Retouch or filter the image; unedited photos are required by GOV.UK and most authorities.
- Reuse an old photo — six months is the usual maximum age.
Why You Should Not Pay $15 at a Store
A passport photo at a pharmacy costs about USD 15 to USD 20 for two prints, and a dedicated photo studio can charge more. The photo itself is nothing more than a correctly cropped and correctly sized image, which is exactly what this free passport photo maker produces. For digital submissions — a DS-160 US visa, a GOV.UK online renewal, an eVisa upload — a store print is often unnecessary because you only need a correctly sized JPEG file. Even when you do need paper, the printable sheet lets you make six photos for a few cents at a kiosk or at home, and you can reprint instantly if one is rejected. The only reason to pay a store is if you cannot get a usable photo at home, for example for a very young baby or a strict lighting setup, but even then the sheet maker lets you print your own once you have a good shot.
Common Passport Photo Rejection Reasons
Rejections are almost always preventable. The most frequent causes are: the photo is the wrong size because it was printed at the wrong scale; the background is off-white, patterned or shadowed; the head is too small or too large in the frame; there is glare on glasses, or glasses at all where they are banned; the expression shows teeth; the image is blurry, has red-eye or is digitally altered; the print is creased, discoloured or cut crookedly; or the photo is more than six months old. Run your image through the maker above first to fix size and background, then check the framing and expression against the head-size rules in the table. If you are applying for a US visa, our passport photo maker and checker and the DS-160 guide cover the digital upload step, and the visa document checklist helps you assemble everything else.
How This Tool Was Verified
Millimetre photo sizes were checked on October 9, 2026 against official and consular sources: the US Department of State photo requirements (2 x 2 in, head 25-35 mm), GOV.UK passport photo rules (printed 35 x 45 mm; digital at least 600 x 750 px, 50 KB to 10 MB), the Schengen/ICAO 35 x 45 mm biometric standard (head 32-36 mm), and the published Canadian (50 x 70 mm), Chinese (33 x 48 mm), Japanese (45 x 45 mm) and Australian (35 x 45 mm) specifications. Pixel dimensions are the printed millimetre sizes rendered at 300 DPI (35 mm = 413 px, 45 mm = 531 px). Always confirm the current rules on the official site for the country where you are applying, because requirements can change.