Why do my printed passport photos come out the wrong size?

Almost always because the print dialog is set to Fit to page or Scale to fit, which shrinks the page by a few percent to allow for the printer's unprintable margin. Choose 100 percent or Actual size instead.

How do I check my printer is printing at 100 percent?

Print a page containing a shape of known size and measure it. A bank card is ideal because it is 85.6 by 54 mm in every country. If a printed 85.6 mm outline matches your card, the scale is correct.

What paper should I use for passport photos?

4 by 6 inch glossy photo paper gives the best result and is the standard photo size worldwide. A4 and US Letter also work and fit more photos per sheet. Note that metric 10 by 15 cm paper is slightly smaller than 4 by 6 inches.

Can I print passport photos at a shop instead?

Yes. Take the JPEG sheet file to any photo kiosk or print shop and order a standard 4 by 6 inch print, then cut along the guides. This is the reliable option if your printer cannot hold scale.

Make My Passport Photo › How to print

How to Print a Passport Photo at Home Without Getting the Size Wrong

Passport photos are rejected for being the wrong size far more often than for anything to do with the photograph itself. The cause is nearly always a single setting in the print dialog, and it is switched on by default on most computers.

The one mistake that ruins home-printed passport photos Print dialogs default to Fit to page, Shrink to fit or Scale to fit. These shrink the page by a few percent so nothing falls in the printer's unprintable border. A 2 inch photo comes out at about 1.9 inches. It looks fine. It is rejected. Choose 100% or Actual size instead.

Check your printer in under a minute

Rather than trusting the setting, prove it. This free sheet prints an outline exactly the size of a bank card, which is 85.6 by 54 mm in every country on earth. Hold your card against the print. If it matches, your scale is correct.

⬇ Download the free print check sheet (PDF, A4) A bank card outline, a 100 mm ruler, and three passport photo sizes at true size. Print it on ordinary paper first, before you waste any photo paper. No email required, nothing to sign up for.

The full sequence

Make the sheet. Crop to the official size for your document and lay the photos out. Our tool does this free, with a watermarked preview so you can see the result before paying anything.
Print the check sheet above on plain paper and test it against a bank card.
Set the print dialog to 100% or Actual size. On a Mac this is under Paper Handling, where "Scale to fit paper size" must be unticked. On Windows it is usually Page Sizing, set to Actual size.
Choose the right paper size in the dialog, and set quality to Best or Photo.
Measure one photo with a ruler before cutting. Thirty seconds here saves a whole sheet.

Which paper to use

Paper	Real size	Good for
4 × 6 in photo paper	101.6 × 152.4 mm	The standard worldwide. Six US 2×2 photos, or eight 35×45 mm.
10 × 15 cm photo paper	100 × 150 mm	Not the same as 4 × 6 in. It is 1.6 mm narrower, which is enough to clip the outside photos.
A4	210 × 297 mm	Fits far more per sheet: 20 US photos, 36 at 35 × 45 mm.
US Letter	216 × 279 mm	Same as A4 in practice.

4 × 6 inches and 10 × 15 cm are not the same paper Shops sell them interchangeably. They differ by 1.6 mm across, and two US 2 × 2 inch photos need the full 101.6 mm. Printing a 4 × 6 layout on metric paper cuts into the outer photos. Check the box your paper came in, and pick the matching option in the tool.

If your printer will not hold the scale

Some printers cannot be persuaded to print at exactly 100%, particularly older drivers and some all-in-one models. This is not a dead end and you do not need to buy a printer.

Take the file to a shop instead Download the sheet as a JPEG rather than a PDF and take it to any photo kiosk, pharmacy or print shop. Order a standard 4 × 6 inch print and cut along the guides. Kiosks print at the true paper size by design, so the result is correct without you touching a setting. It usually costs well under a dollar, and it is still far cheaper than a photo booth.

Cutting

Cut with a craft knife against a metal ruler rather than scissors; scissors wander and a crooked edge can fail a check. Our sheets place dotted guides along every shared edge, so one cut serves two photos. If you enabled a gap between photos, the guide sits in the middle of that gap, so each photo keeps its white border.

Common questions

Why does the photo look right on screen but print small?

Because the scaling happens in the print driver, after the file leaves the application. The file is correct; the printer is shrinking it. That is exactly what the check sheet detects.

Does printing at 600 DPI instead of 300 make it bigger?

No. DPI affects detail, not physical size. A photo at 600 DPI has four times the pixels in the same number of millimetres.

Can I print on plain paper?

For a real application, no. Most authorities require photo-quality paper, and plain paper absorbs ink so faces look soft and dull. Plain paper is fine for the check sheet.

Make your photo sheet now, free preview →