Photo and signature size for exam forms: a complete guide

The three things every form checks

Online application forms usually check three things about each image, and a file has to pass all three:

1. File format, almost always JPG or JPEG.
2. File size in KB, usually a range with a minimum and a maximum.
3. Dimensions in pixels, or sometimes in centimetres.

Fixing only the KB is the most common reason a “correct” photo still gets refused.

Commonly used sizes

These are the sizes you will see most often, especially in banking and insurance recruitment. They are a starting point, not a substitute for your notification.

Staff Selection Commission forms have asked for a signature of 10–20KB at about 6 × 2 cm, and in recent cycles have captured the candidate’s photo live through the application instead of taking an upload. Requirements like these change between years, so read the “how to apply” section of the notification you are actually applying to.

Taking the photo

You do not need a studio for an online form. You need even light, a plain background and a straight face.

• Background: a white or very light, plain wall. Avoid patterned curtains and door frames.
• Light: face a window in daytime. Light from behind you turns your face dark; a single ceiling bulb casts shadows under the eyes.
• Pose: look straight at the camera, shoulders level, mouth closed, eyes open.
• What to avoid: caps, dark glasses, filters, beauty mode, heavy editing. Religious headwear is usually allowed if your full face is visible.
• Framing: your face should fill most of the frame, from just above the head to just below the chin.
• Recency: many notifications want a recent photo and ask you to bring the same one to the exam. Keep a printed copy.

Ask someone else to take it, holding the phone at your eye level, about an arm’s length and a half away. Selfies distort the nose and are often tilted.

Making the signature

• Sign on plain white paper with a black or dark blue ball pen. Pencil, sketch pen and lined paper cause problems.
• Sign the way you normally do. Many notifications state that a signature in capital letters will not be accepted.
• Sign at normal size. A huge signature becomes thin and faint when shrunk to 140 × 60 pixels.
• Photograph it flat, in daylight, without your shadow on the paper.

The same signature should be used at every stage: application, admit card, exam centre and document verification.

Thumb impression and declaration

For the left thumb impression, use a stamp pad with blue or black ink and press firmly on white paper without smudging. For the handwritten declaration, write the exact text given in the notification in your own handwriting, in English unless told otherwise. Do not type it, and do not write it in capital letters if the notification forbids that.

Getting the exact pixels and KB

A phone photo is around 3000 × 4000 pixels and 3MB. You need to crop it to the right shape, resize it to the exact pixels, and compress it into the KB range, without stretching your face.

The Photo & Signature Resizer does all three together. Pick the document type, frame your face with the zoom and move sliders, and it produces a JPG at the exact pixel size inside the KB range. For signatures it also whitens the paper so grey shadows disappear.

If your file comes out below the minimum KB, which happens with small signatures, the tool pads the JPG invisibly so it meets the minimum without changing the image.

Why uploads still get rejected

A five-minute checklist

1. Read the image section of your notification and note format, KB range and pixels for each item.
2. Take the photo against a plain wall in daylight, and sign on white paper.
3. Make each file with the exact numbers from your notification.
4. Open each file once more and check it is the right one, clear and upright.
5. Save all of them in one folder named after the exam for later stages.

Tools for this

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