Is it time to renew your passport? If so you’ll already be thinking about getting some decent passport photos done. Photo booths pictures can be grim affairs so taking photos in a more relaxed atmosphere like your own home makes sense. But what rules are there about passport photo sizes? And is it possible to print them out at home?
What passport photos do I need?
You’ll need two identical passport photos for your application. Follow the rules for taking a good passport photo and you’re halfway there. Now you need to print them out at 45mm high x 35mm wide size – you can’t print a bigger picture and cut it down!
Shoot and edit your passport pictures
First, make sure you’re well lit – natural daylight is best – and standing in front of a plain cream or light grey background. Don’t use a flash so you avoid the dreaded red-eye and keep a tight focus on your head and shoulders. Once you’re satisfied with your photo then you can move onto the next step.
If you feel the need to edit your photo, think again. Gov.UK rules state quite clearly that photos should be ‘unaltered by computer software’ so you may run into problems if you give yourself a virtual facelift!
Finally, you need to accurately size your photo so that the distance between your chin and the crown of your head is no less than 29mm and no more than 34mm, and set the photo size to the standard 45mm x 35mm.
Press print
Finally, you need to set your home printer to print your passport pics. Bear in mind that they must be printed to a professional standard on white photo paper – and check that your printer can handle borderless printing as your passport photos must be printed without a border.
‘Professional standard’ can be subjective but obviously, you’ll need to invest in some decent photographic paper rather than plain old copy paper!
Now you’ll need to set the printer to print at 100% of screen size and select the highest possible resolution before pressing print.
Picture perfect
If all that sounds like a hassle, it is. Especially when you can simply upload your passport pictures to Paspic where 99.5% of passport pics are approved the first time!
So why not let us take the fuss out of passport photo printing and get approved first time or your money back?