French passport photo size
A French passport photo is 35 mm wide by 45 mm high, with the face 32 to 36 mm from chin to crown. The background must be plain and light, and white is forbidden. It also has to come from an authorised photographer or an approved booth.
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What the authority specifies
- Photo size
- 45 mm by 35 mm
- Pixels at 300 DPI
- 413 x 531
- Background
- one colour and light, such as light blue or grey. White is forbidden
- File size
- No limit published
- Source
- www.legifrance.gouv.fr
- Read at the source on
Each size on this page was read at the issuing authority's own website, not copied from another converter or from a search result.
The page it came from and the date it was read are printed above, so you can check the same source in one click.
Why this size?
The photograph is fixed to a document meant to last ten years, so French law specifies the print and not just the picture.
It has to survive thirty days at 60 degrees and 70 percent humidity, six hours of dry heat at 105 degrees, an abrasion test and seventy two hours of simulated sunlight.
A home printer cannot meet that, which is why an approved booth is asked for rather than simply a correctly sized image.
Where the pixel figure comes from
Passport offices publish millimetres, not pixels, because the photograph is printed. Turning millimetres into pixels needs a resolution, and most authorities do not name one.
This one does not, so the pixel figure above is 300 DPI, the resolution print shops work to. The millimetre measurement is the requirement; the pixel figure is our arithmetic on top of it.
That matters if you are uploading rather than printing.
An online form usually states its own pixel size or file size limit, and where an authority publishes one this page uses that instead of converting anything.
Check before you submit
Requirements change, and the only version that counts is the one on the authority's own page on the day you apply.
Every size here links to the page it came from and shows the date it was read. If that date looks old, spend a minute at the source before you print anything.
What happens to your photo?
Your selected photo is processed in your browser, without an image upload to a server. The page may download code and codecs needed for editing.
Save your result before closing the tab; unsaved edits are kept in memory rather than in an online account.
Common questions
What size is a French passport photo?
The arrete of 5 February 2009 gives 35 mm wide by 45 mm high, with the face measuring 32 to 36 mm from the bottom of the chin to the top of the skull, hair excluded.
Service-Public puts that second figure another way: the face fills 70 to 80 percent of the photo.
Can a French passport photo have a white background?
No. The arrete asks for a plain background in a light colour, giving light blue and light grey as its examples, and then says in as many words that white is forbidden.
Italy is the trap worth naming: it uses the identical 35 by 45 mm size and requires white, so a photo that passes in Rome is rejected in Paris.
Can I take a French passport photo myself?
You always hand the photo in yourself, in mainland France and at a consulate abroad, because the counter does not take it for you.
But it must be taken by an authorised professional or in a booth running a system approved by the Interior Ministry, and the ANTS website lists the ones near you.
What size is a French passport photo in pixels?
The arrete does not publish one, because it describes a print. 413 by 531 is this tool's conversion of 35 by 45 mm at 300 DPI, which is the resolution print shops work to.
Is there any tolerance on the size?
A little, and only in one direction.
The 2007 arrete on fixing photographs to identity documents writes the format as 35 mm (0/-1 mm) by 45 mm (0/-1 mm), so a millimetre under the stated size is allowed and a millimetre over is not.
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