The honest default: most official photos should have no border
None of the official specifications read for this site asks for a border. Passport and visa photo guidance is written around a plain light or white background with the face filling most of the frame, and a coloured or decorative border on an upload risks a rejection. So this page does two separate jobs. For printing, it puts a thin border round each copy and lays the copies out on a sheet with cut lines, which is what makes eight small photos easy to cut straight. For uploading, the Fit menu’s India targets pad the photo with white to the required size and set the byte window, with no border at all.
The sheet is worked out, not guessed: the cell size in millimetres is turned into pixels at 300 DPI, a 3 mm margin is kept for the printer, and whichever way round the sheet holds more copies is used. The count is printed under the setting. The photo is never cropped to fit a cell; if its shape differs, it is padded with white inside the cell.
The specifications, with their sources
Official photo portals generally want the photo itself with a plain background and no decorative border. Use a border here for printing and cutting, or white padding only where a portal requires a square photo.
| Document | What the page says | What this site does |
|---|---|---|
| Indian passport, digital photo | 630 × 810 pixels, white background, face 80–85% of the photo, full head from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin. No border rule is stated. Source: Embassy of India, Bern — Guidelines for ICAO Compliant Photographs for Passport Application, checked 18 October 2026. | Pads the photo to 630 × 810 with white. It does not judge the face's proportion. |
| Indian passport, printed photo | 2 × 2 inches, plain light background, face 70–80% of the photo. A studio print is recommended. No border rule is stated. Source: Embassy of India, Buenos Aires — Photo Guidelines for India Passport, checked 18 October 2026. | The 2 × 2 in cell on the print sheet. |
| Indian e-Visa photo | JPEG, 10 KB to 300 KB, at least 350 × 350 and at most 1000 × 1000 pixels, height equal to width. No border rule is stated. Source: Indian Visa Online — e-Visa image specification (VSS_IMAGE.pdf), checked 18 October 2026. | Pads a non-square photo to a square with white, keeps the side between 350 and 1000 pixels, and sets a 10–300 KB target. |
| PAN application photo | JPEG, 200 DPI, at most 50 KB, 5 cm × 2.5 cm as printed on the page; the same page's upload steps give 20–50 KB. No border rule is stated. Source: Protean — PAN card documents scanning and uploading method, checked 18 October 2026. | 197 × 394 pixels (2.5 × 5 cm at 200 DPI) with a 20–50 KB target. The page disagrees with itself, so both figures are shown. |
| PAN application signature | JPEG, 200 DPI, at most 50 KB, 2 cm × 4.5 cm; the upload steps give 10–50 KB. No border rule is stated. Source: Protean — PAN card documents scanning and uploading method, checked 18 October 2026. | 354 × 157 pixels (4.5 × 2 cm at 200 DPI) with a 10–50 KB target. |
| SSC CGL 2026 signature | JPEG, 10–20 KB, about 4.0 × 2.0 cm. The photo is captured live in the application, so there is no photo upload size. No border rule is stated. Source: PW — SSC CGL Photo and Signature Size 2026 (secondary; the official notice is the authority), checked 18 October 2026. Confirm on the official portal. | 315 × 157 pixels (4 × 2 cm at 200 DPI, our arithmetic) with a 10–20 KB target. |
Making a print sheet
- 1Crop the photo to head and shoulders first, if it is not already.
- 2Open it here. It is laid out 8 times on 4 × 6 in with thin cut lines.
- 3Under Fit, choose the sheet, the cell size and lines or gaps.
- 4Save, and print at 100% scale with no fit-to-page.
Limits worth seeing before export
- Official photo rules change. The figures on this page say where they were read and when; the issuing portal is the authority.
- This page does not check face size, background or lighting. It lays out and borders the photo you give it.
Questions about the rendered frame
- Should my passport photo have a border?
- The official pages read for this site specify none: they ask for a plain light or white background, and a decorative border risks a rejection. A thin border on a printed sheet helps you cut the copies out cleanly. For an online upload, use the white padding fit targets instead, with no border.
- How many copies fit on a 4 × 6 sheet?
- At 35 × 45 mm with thin cut lines, 8 copies, in two rows of four with the sheet turned landscape and a 3 mm printer margin. On A4 the count is printed under the sheet setting; it changes with the cell size and the gap you choose.
- Does this crop my photo to the face?
- No. Each copy is the whole photo with its border, padded with white inside the cell if its shape does not match. Cropping to the head and shoulders is a separate step, done before this one with a photo cropper.
- Will a photo shop print it at the right size?
- The file is exactly 1200 × 1800 pixels for 4 × 6 in, or 2480 × 3508 for A4, at 300 DPI. Ask the shop to print at 100% with no fit-to-page scaling, and the cells come out at their stated size.
Other frame families
- Borders on form photosWhen a passport or form photo should not have a border, and how to pad one inside a KB window.
- Add white borderAn exact white border in pixels, percent, millimetres or inches, on every side or each side.
- Photo matA gallery mat with a bevelled cut, weighted bottom, V-groove or double mat, in millimetres.
