UK Passport Photo — 35×45 mm
Two UK rules catch nearly everyone: the background must be cream or light grey — a white American-style backdrop is wrong here — and the photo must be under a month old. This page measures the 29–34 mm head rule, checks your background's actual colour and exports to HMPO's digital limits, free.
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How it works
- Photograph against plain cream or light grey — not white — and drop the file here.
- Adjust the crown line to the top of your hair.
- Check the measured head height against the 29–34 mm band and the background verdict.
- Export at 600×750 px or larger, inside the 50 KB – 10 MB window.
Worth knowing
His Majesty's Passport Office publishes the tightest head-height band of the major issuers: 29 to 34 millimetres from chin to crown inside a 45 mm tall frame. Five millimetres of tolerance means the difference between acceptance and a "head too large" letter is a fingertip of camera distance — which is exactly why this page shows the measured number instead of a green tick.
The background rule inverts American habits. GOV.UK asks for plain cream or light grey; pure white is not the instruction, and people re-using a US-style white photo discover this at the worst possible time. The colour check here classifies your actual backdrop in CIELAB against cream and light-grey ranges, and flags a white wall as the mismatch it is. Digital applications add their own floor and ceiling: at least 600×750 pixels, between 50 KB and 10 MB, unedited.
Recency is the sleeper requirement: within the last month, far stricter than the six-month convention elsewhere. HMPO also states plainly that photos must not be altered by computer software — the same institutional turn against processed photos visible in Washington and Delhi. The safe pipeline is exactly what this tool implements: a straight photograph, measured, cropped to geometry, and re-encoded without touching a pixel of content.
For the photo itself, UK guidance favours the setup photographers use for the format: subject half a metre from the backdrop, diffuse frontal light, camera at eye level around a metre and a half away. Get those three right and the measurements on this page mostly pass themselves; the tool's job is telling you when they have not, in millimetres.
The UK's one-month recency rule is the strictest of any major passport authority — a photo that sailed through your US visa application six weeks ago is already too old for a British passport.
What this tool will not do
- It will not recolour a white background to cream — HMPO requires photographs unaltered by software, so the honest fix is the right backdrop.
- It cannot check the one-month age of your photo; only you know when it was taken.
UK passport photo requirements (verified 2026-08)
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Print size | 35 × 45 mm, professionally printed, no border |
| Head height | 29–34 mm, chin to crown |
| Background | Plain cream or light grey — not white |
| Digital minimum | 600 × 750 px |
| Digital file size | 50 KB – 10 MB, JPEG |
| Recency | Taken within the last month |
| Expression | Plain, mouth closed, eyes open and visible |
| Alterations | Must be unaltered by computer software |
Questions people ask
Can a UK passport photo have a white background?
GOV.UK specifies plain cream or light grey. White backgrounds are the US convention, and reusing a white-background photo is a common cause of UK rejections — this page's background check will flag it.
What are the pixel requirements for the digital photo?
At least 600 wide by 750 tall, in a file between 50 KB and 10 MB. The exporter here meets the pixel floor and lands the file inside the byte window automatically.
How old can the photo be?
One month. It is the rule people fail without knowing a rule existed — book the application, then take the photo, not the reverse.
Are glasses allowed in UK passport photos?
Only if your eyes are fully visible — no tinted lenses, no glare, no frames across the eyes. HMPO advises removing them where possible; the safest photo has none.
Can babies' photos be taken at home?
Yes — lying on a plain light sheet is explicitly acceptable for under-ones, with no other person visible. The geometry bands relax for infants, so treat this page's adult measurements as guidance only for babies.
Why did HMPO reject a photo a supermarket booth produced?
Booths handle geometry but not always the digital-code route, lighting shadows or recency. If the booth photo scans below 600×750 px or shows uneven background, the digital check fails it — the measurements here diagnose which.
Usually the next step
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