White or grey background — which should I use?

Grey or cream is what the guidance asks for. Plain white is widely accepted and rarely causes trouble, but light grey is the safer choice and it makes fair hair and pale collars easier to distinguish, which is what the automated check is looking at.

Why does my photo pass for a visa but fail for the passport?

Almost always the head size. The British range tops out at 34 mm where the Schengen standard starts at 32 and runs to 36. A photograph cropped for a European visa is frequently a couple of millimetres too close for HM Passport Office.

Can I use this for a child's passport?

The dimensions are the same, but children under one are exempt from the neutral-expression and eyes-open rules, and babies may be photographed lying on a plain sheet. The crop still has to put the head inside the range, which is the hard part with an infant.

Does the photograph get uploaded anywhere by this tool?

No. The cut-out model and the cropping both run inside this browser tab, which is why the page still works with the network disconnected. Nothing about your face reaches a server here.

UK Passport Photo — 35 × 45 mm

35 × 45 mm at 300 dpi (413 × 531 px), plain light grey or cream.

Everything runs inside your browser. Your files never leave your device.

Drop your files here

.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp, .heic, .avif · they stay on this device

Options

Country and document

Sets the millimetre size, the head-height range and the background colour.

Background

Anything but 'keep' cuts you out with a model that runs on this device and puts you on a plain colour. 'Keep' skips the model entirely, so it is instant.

Cutout tightness0%

Only used when the background is being replaced. Raise it to trim a halo, lower it to rescue hair that was cut into.

Print sheet

A sheet tiles as many copies as the paper takes, with a cut line around each. Any print shop can run it.

Also save a framing guide

A second file with the crown and chin bands drawn on, so you can check the head is the right size. Never submit that one.

Show exact numbers

Frame measured in

The frame is written as a percentage so it means the same thing whatever the photograph's resolution.

Frame from the left

Frame from the top

Frame width

Frame height

Your files are read by this tab and never uploaded. Closing the page discards them.

Ask about UK Passport Photo — 35 × 45 mm

Questions about what this tool does, which option to pick, or what it can and cannot handle.

The question you type here is sent to an AI provider to be answered — your files and whatever you put in the tool above are not, and the assistant cannot see them. Answers are generated and can be wrong. The tool itself is not guessing: it runs deterministic code on your device.

About the UK Passport Photo — 35 × 45 mm

British passport photographs are 35 by 45 millimetres, and the measurement that separates them from the rest of Europe is the face: 29 millimetres at least and 34 at most, where the Schengen rule runs from 32 to 36. A photograph cropped for a French visa is very often too tightly framed for a UK passport, and the same picture will pass one and fail the other.

The background is specified as plain cream or light grey, not white. This surprises people who assume white is universally safe. Pure white is accepted in practice, but a slightly warm neutral grey is what the guidance describes, and it has a practical advantage: pale hair and light clothing separate from it, where they disappear against white.

If you are applying online, you do not print anything. You upload a digital photograph or enter a code from a photo booth, and HM Passport Office runs an automated check before a human ever sees it. That check is unforgiving about shadows behind the head, reflections on spectacles, and anything covering the face including a fringe that falls across the eyes.

Expression is neutral with the mouth closed. Smiling is not permitted, which is worth saying plainly because the instruction people remember from booth photographs of twenty years ago was the opposite.

Spectacles are allowed if your eyes are clearly visible with no glare, though the guidance recommends removing them. A religious head covering is fine so long as nothing shades or hides the face itself, from the point of the chin up past the eyebrows.

Check gov.uk for the current wording before submitting.

How to use it

1Add a recent photograph — within the last month is the standard advice — taken facing the camera squarely.
2Keep the country on the United Kingdom, which sets the 35 × 45 frame and the narrower British head range.
3Choose light grey as the background, or keep your own if you photographed yourself against a plain wall already.
4Check the guide file: your crown and chin must both land inside the marked bands, which are drawn for 29 to 34 mm.
5Save the single image for an online application, or run off a 4 × 6 sheet of eight if you need prints.

Questions

White or grey background — which should I use?: Grey or cream is what the guidance asks for. Plain white is widely accepted and rarely causes trouble, but light grey is the safer choice and it makes fair hair and pale collars easier to distinguish, which is what the automated check is looking at.
Why does my photo pass for a visa but fail for the passport?: Almost always the head size. The British range tops out at 34 mm where the Schengen standard starts at 32 and runs to 36. A photograph cropped for a European visa is frequently a couple of millimetres too close for HM Passport Office.
Can I use this for a child's passport?: The dimensions are the same, but children under one are exempt from the neutral-expression and eyes-open rules, and babies may be photographed lying on a plain sheet. The crop still has to put the head inside the range, which is the hard part with an infant.
Does the photograph get uploaded anywhere by this tool?: No. The cut-out model and the cropping both run inside this browser tab, which is why the page still works with the network disconnected. Nothing about your face reaches a server here.