You have a good passport photo on your phone. Now it has to become a small square or rectangle of paper at exactly the right size, and that's where a lot of photos go wrong: the printer quietly scales the picture to fit the page, and the photos come out a few millimetres off. This guide walks through how to print passport photos at home or at a photo shop, how to check the size before you cut, and how to make the print sheet with Passport Cat, our passport photo app for iPhone and iPad.
Still need the photo itself? Start with how to take a passport photo on iPhone.
First: check whether you can print it yourself
Not every document takes a photo you print yourself. Some issuers allow a home print on photo paper. Some want a professional print. Some only want a digital photo for an online application, and some want a photo taken at their own office or by a photographer they name. Read the issuing authority's current photo rules before you print, and check the paper too: some ask for matte, some for glossy, and plain paper is usually not enough.
How a passport photo print sheet works
You don't print one photo on a whole page. You lay several copies out on one sheet, at their true size, and cut them out:
- A 6×4 in (10×15 cm) sheet is a standard photo print size, so you can order it at a pharmacy, photo shop or kiosk, or print it on 6×4 photo paper.
- A Letter or A4 sheet goes through an ordinary home printer, loaded with photo paper.
- Cut lines around each copy show where to trim.
- A scale bar of a known length lets you check with a ruler that nothing was resized.
Make the sheet in Passport Cat
- Pick your document and check the photo. When the checks pass, tick the points under Please confirm: a few things the app can't see reliably. Then tap Print & download.
- See the sheet first. If your document can be printed, the top of the screen shows the 6×4 print as it will come out, with its cut lines and a 25 mm scale bar.
- Pick how to print. The sections you see depend on what your document's rules allow.
The 6×4 print and the home PDF each hold as many copies as fit at the document's photo size, up to six, with 3 mm between them and a grey line around each one. The photos are never scaled to fit the paper. Next to the photos are the photo size, the document's name and a reminder that the bar is 25 mm when printed at the right size.
Print at a photo shop or kiosk
Under Print at a pharmacy or kiosk, tap Share 6×4 print to send the JPEG wherever you order prints, or Save to Photos to keep it in your photo library.
When you order, choose the 6×4 in (10×15 cm) size and turn off "fit", "fill" or borders. Those options can crop or shrink the picture, and the photos come out the wrong size. If a document's rules in the app need a professional print, Passport Cat says so here, and there's no Print at home section.
Print at home
Unless the document's rules in the app call for a professional print, you'll see Print at home. Pick Letter or A4 (it starts on Letter if your device uses US measurements, A4 otherwise), then tap Share PDF to print. From the share sheet, tap Print, or save the PDF and print it from a computer.
The PDF puts the photos in the upper part of the page, at actual size, with a short printing note under them.
Tips for printing at the right size
- Print at 100% or "Actual size". Turn off "Fit to page", "Scale to fit" or "Shrink oversized pages" in the print dialog.
- Skip borderless printing. On many printers, borderless mode enlarges the image a little so it reaches the edges.
- Set the paper type. Tell the printer it's photo paper, and use the best quality setting.
- Measure before you cut. Put a ruler on the scale bar. If it isn't exactly 25 mm, the printer resized the sheet: change the setting and reprint. Then measure one photo against your document's size.
- Cut straight, inside the lines. A paper trimmer, or a ruler and a craft knife, usually gives cleaner edges than scissors. Leave no white border.
- Let the ink dry, and hold the photos by the edges, so there are no smudges or fingerprints on the face.
Several people, or other paper
Printing for a whole family? With Passport Cat Pro, tap Save for a person… after checking a photo, and it's kept on your device under Saved people on Home. Once two or more people are saved, tap Make a family sheet to put several people on one 6×4 print. One sheet holds one photo size, so people whose documents use different sizes need a sheet each.
Pro also adds More paper sizes, where the document's rules allow each kind of print: 7×5, 10×8 and 5×3.5 in photo paper, with as many copies as fit, and A5 for printing at home.
Applying online instead? Under Apply online, tap Share digital photo where the document has an online upload. More help is on the Passport Cat help page.
What it costs
Taking, checking, printing and downloading in Passport Cat are free, as many photos as you need, where the document's rules allow. There's no watermark on your photos, no ads, no account and no subscription. (The home PDF's printing note, under the photos, ends with "made with Passport Cat".) Passport Cat Pro, a one-time purchase, adds more paper sizes, saved photos for each family member, the family sheet and a check of which other passports and visas your photo works for. More on the Passport Cat page.
Your photos are checked on your device and kept out of iCloud backups; they leave only when you share them or save them to Photos.
The final decision is always the issuing authority's, and Passport Cat isn't affiliated with any government. For documents whose photo must be taken by the authority or a photographer it names, downloads are off: you can still use the checks to practise.
Quick answers
Can I print my own passport photos at home?
For some documents, yes, on photo paper. Others need a professional print or a digital photo, so check the issuer's current rules first. In Passport Cat, Print at home is hidden when the document's rules in the app call for a professional print.
What size paper do I print passport photos on?
A 6×4 in (10×15 cm) photo print is the usual choice at a shop or kiosk. At home, use Letter or A4 photo paper. Either way, the photos on the sheet are at your document's own size, and you cut them out.
Why did my passport photos print the wrong size?
Usually "fit to page", borderless printing or a print order with "fit" or borders turned on. Reprint at actual size or 100%, and check the 25 mm scale bar with a ruler before you cut.
Try Passport Cat
Try Passport Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/passport-cat