How to Print Passport Size Photos at Home (A4, 4x6, Word)

To print passport size photos at home, make one photo at exactly 35 x 45 mm (or 2 x 2 inches for the US) at 300 DPI, place several copies on a 4x6 inch or A4 page in Word or a photo app, and print at 100% / actual size on photo paper. Our passport size photo maker gives you the correctly sized 300 DPI JPG in your browser; the rest is page layout and print settings.

The single most important rule: never print with "fit to page" or "scale to fit". That is why most home-printed passport photos come out the wrong size.

Step 1: make one correctly sized photo

1. Take the photo against a plain white wall in soft daylight. Our guide to making a passport photo at home covers lighting and pose.
2. Crop to the face and shoulders with the passport ratio in crop image.
3. Open passport size photo. It outputs 35 x 45 mm at 300 DPI (413 x 531 pixels). For the US, switch to inches and enter 2 x 2.
4. Download the JPG. Because the DPI is written into the file, apps that respect it will place it at the real size.

For other sizes, such as the 3.5 x 2.5 cm photo on a printed PAN form, use resize image in cm and type the exact size. The full size table is in passport size photo size in cm, inches and pixels.

How many passport photos fit on a sheet?

Eight on a 4x6 sheet is the classic photo-shop layout. It leaves about 12 mm spare in each direction, which is enough for small cutting gaps but not for big printer margins, so turn on borderless printing if your printer supports it, or settle for six.

How to make passport size photos in Word (8 or 25+ on a page)

These steps are for Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac.

1. Set up the page. Go to Layout > Size and choose A4, or choose a 4x6 inch / 10 x 15 cm size if your printer lists one. Under Layout > Margins, choose Narrow.
2. Insert the photo. Insert > Pictures > This Device, then choose your passport photo.
3. Check the size. Click the photo, open the Picture Format tab and look at the Height and Width boxes. They should read 4.5 cm and 3.5 cm. If they do not, type "4.5 cm" and "3.5 cm"; Word accepts units typed into the box even if it normally shows inches. Since the photo is already the right shape, the lock aspect ratio setting will not distort it.
4. Make it easy to arrange. With the photo selected, choose Wrap Text > In Line with Text so it behaves like a character.
5. Copy and paste. Press Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac) once and Ctrl+V repeatedly, adding a space between photos. Word wraps them into rows. Five fit across an A4 page with narrow margins.
6. Add small gaps with a space between photos. Word leaves a little space between rows on its own. Thin gaps make cutting easier; with Narrow margins you should get 5 rows on A4, or 6 if you reduce the margins and line spacing further.
7. Save a copy as PDF with File > Save As (or Export) > PDF if you want to print it somewhere else. Word keeps the exact sizes in the PDF.

If your photo is not already cropped to the passport shape, Word can crop it: Picture Format > Crop > Aspect Ratio offers common ratios, but cropping in a dedicated tool first is simpler and gives more control over framing.

Print settings that keep the size exact

• Scale: 100% or "Actual size". Turn off "Fit to page", "Shrink to fit" and "Fill entire paper".
• Paper size: match the paper in the tray (A4 or 4x6 / 10x15 cm). A mismatch makes the printer rescale.
• Paper type: choose "Photo paper" or "Glossy" in the printer's settings. It changes how much ink is used and makes a big difference to quality.
• Quality: pick "Best" or "High".
• Borderless: turn it on for 4x6 sheets with eight photos, if your printer supports it.

Test first. Print one page on plain paper and measure a photo with a ruler. It should be 3.5 cm wide and 4.5 cm tall. If it is 3.3 or 3.8 cm, something is still scaling.

Which paper to use

• Glossy photo paper looks most like shop prints and is fine for passport and ID photos.
• Satin or matte photo paper reduces glare and takes glue and pen marks better, useful when you paste photos onto forms.
• Plain A4 is acceptable for forms where the photo is just pasted and attested, but colours look dull. Check whether your form says "photo paper" before using it.

Let prints dry for a few minutes before cutting or stacking, especially inkjet prints on glossy paper.

Printing without Word

• Windows Photos: open the photo, press Ctrl+P, and choose a layout. Many printer drivers offer wallet or multiple-photo layouts, but they may resize to fit, so measure the test print.
• Mac Preview: File > Print, set Scale to 100%, and check the preview. For several copies on one page, a Word or Pages document is easier.
• Photo shop: send the single 300 DPI JPG and ask for passport size prints. It is often the cheapest route for eight copies.

When you need a PDF instead

Some offices and online forms ask for the photo or a scanned form as a PDF. Image to PDF turns your JPG into a PDF in the browser. Note that it places one image per page and scales it to fit the page size you choose, so it is for uploads and sharing, not for exact-size printing. For printing, use the Word layout above or print the JPG at 100%.

Common mistakes

• Printing with "fit to page", giving photos that are a few millimetres off.
• Resizing the photo by dragging its corners in Word, which changes the size by eye. Type the values instead.
• Stretching a phone photo to 3.5 x 4.5 cm without cropping. The face looks wide or thin.
• No cutting gaps, so every cut eats into a neighbouring photo.
• Wrong paper type setting, which gives streaky or over-inked prints on photo paper.
• Using an old photo. Most forms and the US passport rules want a recent one.

Questions