Passport size photo in Pakistan: cm, mm, inches and pixels

“Passport size” does not mean one size. A form may ask for the photo in millimetres, in inches, or in pixels, and the same photo has to be described in all three depending on where it is going: millimetres for the print shop, pixels for the upload field. This guide lists the sizes that come up most often, shows what each one is in the other units, and explains the one piece of arithmetic that connects them.

The sizes you will meet

• 35 × 45 mm (3.5 × 4.5 cm, about 1.38 × 1.77 inches). The size used by Pakistan’s passport office, the United Kingdom, the Schengen countries and most of the world. Pakistani job portals that ask for a “passport size” picture mean this shape.
• 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm, 5.1 × 5.1 cm). A square. The United States passport photo size, and the size some visa applications ask for.
• 50 × 70 mm (5 × 7 cm, about 2 × 2.75 inches). The Canadian passport photo size.
• 1 × 1 inch (25.4 × 25.4 mm). A small square used on some registration forms; the Join Pak Army form describes its picture as 1x1.

Passport photo size chart: mm, inches and pixels by document

The pixel columns use the formula pixels = millimetres ÷ 25.4 × dpi, rounded to the nearest pixel. Where a portal states its own pixel size, that figure is given instead and it overrides the arithmetic.

The official sources

• Pakistan: the e-Services portal of the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports says the photo “should be 45 millimeters (mm) high by 35mm wide” on a plain white background, with a digital file of up to 5 MB. Checked on 2 October 2026.
• United Kingdom: GOV.UK says a printed photo must “measure 45 millimetres (mm) high by 35mm wide”, and a digital photo for an online application must be “at least 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall” and “at least 50KB and no more than 10MB”. Checked on 7 October 2026.
• Canada: the Government of Canada passport photo page says photos “must be 50 mm wide by 70 mm high (2 inches wide by 2¾ inches high)”. Checked on 7 October 2026.
• United States: the State Department’s passport photo page gives 2 × 2 inches. We could not open that page on 7 October 2026, so read the current wording there before you rely on it.

From millimetres to pixels

A digital photo has no size in millimetres until it is printed. What connects the two is the print resolution, in dots per inch (dpi). The usual figure for photos is 300 dpi, and the arithmetic is: pixels = millimetres ÷ 25.4 × dpi. At 300 dpi, 35 × 45 mm becomes 413 × 531 pixels, 50 × 70 mm becomes 591 × 827 pixels, 2 × 2 inches becomes 600 × 600 pixels, and 1 × 1 inch becomes 300 × 300 pixels.

Some portals ask for more pixels than 300 dpi gives. The UK’s 600 × 750 minimum for a 35 × 45 mm photo works out at about 435 dpi. That is why a photo that is correct in millimetres can still be refused for being too small in pixels: the two measurements are only linked through the dpi, and the portal has chosen a higher one. When a form states pixels, use the pixels and ignore the millimetres.

Pixels, file size and KB are three different things

The pixel size says how many dots the picture has. The file size in KB says how much storage it takes, which depends on the pixel size and on how strongly the JPG is compressed. A 413 × 531 pixel photo can be 30 KB or 300 KB depending on the compression. So a form that says “35 × 45 mm, under 50 KB” is asking for two separate things: a shape, and a file small enough. The guide on KB, MB, pixels and DPI explains this in more detail.

How to make a photo of a given size

1. Start with a head-and-shoulders photo on a plain background, taken straight on. The guide on taking a passport size photo at home covers the setup.
2. Open the resize tool linked below. Type the width and height and choose the unit: mm, cm, inches or pixels. For mm, cm and inches the tool converts at 300 dpi.
3. Choose the photo. The tool crops it to that shape, keeping the centre, and saves a JPG of exactly that size.
4. If the form also sets a KB limit, use the form’s own page on this site, or the compress pages, to bring the file under the limit. Most of them do the crop and the KB limit in one step.
5. For prints, use the passport size photo maker, which puts 8 copies of a 35 × 45 mm photo on 4 × 6 inch photo paper or 30 on an A4 sheet, with cutting lines.

Quick reference

• 35 × 45 mm = 3.5 × 4.5 cm = 1.38 × 1.77 in = 413 × 531 px at 300 dpi.
• 2 × 2 in = 51 × 51 mm = 5.1 × 5.1 cm = 600 × 600 px at 300 dpi.
• 50 × 70 mm = 5 × 7 cm = 1.97 × 2.76 in = 591 × 827 px at 300 dpi.
• 1 × 1 in = 25.4 × 25.4 mm = 300 × 300 px at 300 dpi.
• 1 inch = 25.4 mm. 1 cm = 10 mm. Pixels = mm ÷ 25.4 × dpi.