How to resize a photo for an exam form
- Drop your photo into the box above, or choose a file.
- Pick your exam, then Photo or Signature.
- Drag the box over your face, or around your signature. Its shape already matches the required size.
- Check the result: the pixel size and file size are shown, and the file is always inside the allowed KB range.
- Select Download and upload the JPG to the application form.
Not listed? Choose Custom size and enter the numbers from your notification.
How it works
Each exam preset is copied from that exam body's own notification, and the table below links the document and the date it was checked. Some notifications give centimetres rather than pixels. Those are converted at a stated print resolution: SSC's 6 × 2 cm signature becomes 472 × 157 px at 200 DPI. Where a notification allows a range, the preset picks a size inside it: GATE's passport-size photo (3.5 × 4.5 cm) is saved at 413 × 531 px, which is 300 DPI and within GATE's 200 × 260 to 530 × 690 px.
- Crop to the right shape. The crop box is locked to the shape of the required size, so nothing gets squashed. The area you select is resampled to the exact pixel size with a Lanczos3 filter in linear light, which keeps faces and pen strokes sharp.
- Fit the KB range. Forms rarely say whether a KB is 1,000 or 1,024 bytes, so the maximum is read as 1,000 bytes per KB and the minimum as 1,024. The file lands inside the range either way. A binary search then finds the highest JPEG quality that fits under the maximum.
- Keep the exact dimensions. When a notification fixes the pixel size, the dimensions never change; only the quality goes down, to 20 at the lowest. If even that is too big, you get a message instead of a file the form would reject. When a notification sets only a file size, as NTA's do, the tool shrinks the image rather than going below quality 40.
- Reach the minimum. A plain signature on white paper is often smaller than the minimum even at top quality. Then JPEG comment segments filled with spaces are added. Image decoders skip comments, so the picture is unchanged and only the byte count rises.
The JPG is encoded by MozJPEG in a background thread. It's built from pixels alone, so it carries no EXIF, GPS or camera details. The same photo, crop and preset always produce the same file.
Photo and signature sizes by exam
Taken from each exam's official notification or website, on the date shown. Exam bodies change these rules between years and sometimes between posts in the same year, so always check the notification for the exam you're applying to. If it differs, use Custom size.
| Exam | Upload | Dimensions | File size | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBPS PO/MT 2025 | Photo | 200 × 230 px | 20–50 KB | IBPS CRP PO/MT-XV notification (2025), checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| Signature | 140 × 60 px | 10–20 KB | ||
| Left thumb impression | 240 × 240 px (3 × 3 cm at 200 DPI) | 20–50 KB | ||
| Handwritten declaration | 800 × 400 px (10 × 5 cm at 200 DPI) | 50–100 KB | ||
| SBI PO 2025 | Photo | 200 × 230 px | 20–50 KB | SBI PO advertisement CRPD/PO/2025-26/04 (June 2025), checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| Signature | 140 × 60 px | 10–20 KB | ||
| Left thumb impression | 240 × 240 px (3 × 3 cm at 200 DPI) | 20–50 KB | ||
| Handwritten declaration | 800 × 400 px (10 × 5 cm at 200 DPI) | 50–100 KB | ||
| SSC CGL 2026 | Signature | About 6.0 × 2.0 cm | 10–20 KB | SSC Combined Graduate Level Examination 2026 notice (May 2026), checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| NEET (UG) 2026 | Photo | No pixel size set | 10–200 KB | NTA NEET (UG) 2026 information bulletin, checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| Signature | No pixel size set | 10–100 KB | ||
| JEE (Main) 2026 | Photo | No pixel size set | 10–200 KB | NTA JEE (Main) 2026 information bulletin, checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| Signature | No pixel size set | 10–100 KB | ||
| CUET (UG) 2026 | Photo | No pixel size set | 10–200 KB | NTA CUET (UG) 2026 information bulletin, checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| Signature | No pixel size set | 10–50 KB | ||
| RRB Level-1 (CEN 09/2025) | Signature | At least 140 × 60 px | 30–49 KB | RRB CEN 09/2025 (Level-1), updated January 2026, checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| GATE 2026 | Photo | 200 × 260 to 530 × 690 px | 5–600 KB | GATE 2026 photograph and signature guidelines (IIT Guwahati), checked 7 Oct 2026 |
| Signature | 250 × 80 to 580 × 180 px | 3–300 KB |
Getting the photo right
- Recent and in colour. Most notifications ask for a photo taken recently, in colour, facing the camera, with your face clearly visible.
- Plain, light background. A white or light wall with no shadows. Patterns and shadows also make the file bigger.
- No caps or dark glasses, unless worn for religious reasons, as many notifications state.
- Crop to head and shoulders. Your face should fill most of the frame, not a small part of a full-length shot.
This tool sets the size, dimensions and format. It can't judge the photo itself; exam bodies reject photos that are blurred, dark, old or of the wrong person, whatever their size.
Common uses
- Filling an exam application. Choose your exam, crop your photo to the frame, and download a JPG with the exact pixels and a size inside the allowed KB range, ready for the upload step.
- Signature rejected as too small. Some forms set a minimum size for the signature as well as a maximum. Pick the signature option and the file is brought inside the range, even when a clean signature compresses to very little.
- A form not in the list. State recruitment boards, universities and scholarship schemes have their own rules. Enter the pixel size and KB range from the notice under Custom size.
From the blog
- How we compress a photo to an exact KB limit. Forms want “20–50 KB”, not “quality 75”. Here's the search that finds the best JPEG inside a byte range, with measurements from a real photo.