How to resize a photo to passport or visa dimensions
Last updated 2026-08-13
Cropping to the right pixel count isn't the whole job — head size and eye position have to be correct too, or a technically-right-sized photo still gets rejected.
Why simple cropping isn't enough
Getting the canvas to the exact required width and height is necessary but not sufficient. Most authorities also specify where your head has to sit within that canvas — a head-height range (see our head size guide) and often an eye-line position. A photo can be exactly 35 × 45mm and still fail if your head is too small, too large, or positioned too high or low in the frame.
What actually has to be correct
Three things together: the canvas size itself, the crown-to-chin head height within the required range, and — where specified — how far your eyes sit from the bottom of the frame. Getting the canvas right while ignoring the other two is the single most common way people fail this without realizing why.
How Pixact does this automatically
Upload a photo on any document's page and the tool detects your head position from real image segmentation, then crops and scales to hit the exact canvas size and head-height range for that specific document — not a generic resize.
Doing it manually, if you're not using a tool
If you're resizing by hand in image-editing software: crop first to get the head-height ratio correct, then scale the whole canvas to the required pixel dimensions — not the other way around. Scaling first and cropping second makes it very easy to lose the correct head-height ratio without noticing.