Irish passport photo — a digital file for Passport Online and 35 × 45 mm prints for Post Passport

The Irish Passport Service accepts two kinds of photo. For Passport Online, you need a colour JPEG at least 715 pixels wide and 951 pixels high, no larger than 9 MB, not scanned, not digitally enhanced and free of compression artefacts, taken by someone else within the last six months. For a paper application you send four identical prints, from 35 × 45 mm up to 38 × 50 mm. Either way, the picture shows you from the head to mid torso, with space between your head and shoulders and the edges, against a plain light grey, white or cream background.

Which photo your application needs

For a paper form, you ring Passport Assist on 01 613 1795 (+353 1 613 1795 from Northern Ireland) to have one generated and posted out, then lodge it at a post office. Applicants living abroad apply from their country of residence, and DFA describes Passport Online as the fastest route from anywhere.

DFA’s technical rules

How big should the head be?

DFA gives no millimetre figure for the head, which sets Ireland apart from most passport authorities. Its guidance relies on example photos instead: a picture cut off at the chest is marked “Good photo”, one showing the body down to the waist is “Too far away”, and a tight face crop is “Too close in”. In DFA’s good examples the head, chin to crown, fills roughly 46–50% of the picture height, with a clear gap above the hair.

This tool’s guides copy that look. On a 35 × 45 mm photo the yellow line for the top of the hair sits 6 mm from the top edge and the blue band puts the chin 26–30 mm down, so the head measures 20–24 mm and the shoulders and upper chest fill the rest. Those figures are our reading of DFA’s examples, not an official rule, so if a photographer frames you slightly differently within the head-to-mid-torso style, that is not a mistake.

Making the photo with this page

1. Take the picture. Ask someone to stand back and photograph you without zooming, with your face lit evenly and nothing on the wall behind you.
2. Choose the file. Photo type already shows Ireland passport — 35 × 45 mm / 750 × 1000 px.
3. Leave Show face-position guides on and place the top of your hair on the yellow line and your chin in the blue band.
4. Adjust with Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position, or by dragging, until your face is centred with space on both sides.
5. Keep Background on Keep the original, since DFA refuses edited photos.
6. Press Make passport photos.

You get three files. The one ending “-ireland-digital-750x1000.jpg” is for Passport Online: a 3:4 image taken from the full-resolution crop, slightly trimmed at the sides, and saved at the highest JPEG quality under 9 MB so that compression stays invisible. The second is a 413 × 531 pixel print photo at 300 DPI, and the third is a 4 × 6 inch sheet holding eight 35 × 45 mm photos.

Uploading and printing

Passport Online checks the file when you upload it, and a member of staff reviews the photo afterwards; DFA contacts you if it is not acceptable. A sideways or upside-down upload is rotated for you, and if you used the wrong photo, contact the Passport Service with your application number. When home photos keep failing, DFA suggests a photo code or a photo provider who emails the file or saves it to a USB key.

For a paper form, have the sheet printed at actual size on photo paper, check that one photo measures 35 × 45 mm, and cut out four. Your witness then completes the back of two of them.

What this page cannot do

• It cannot see your face. The guide lines stay where they are, and you do the positioning.
• It cannot rate the photo. Focus, lighting, colour balance, red-eye, glare and expression are up to you.
• It does not pass or fail anything. Passport Online and DFA’s staff decide, and a photo can still be refused.

Why Irish passport photos are rejected

DFA says poor photos are the main reason it rejects applications. Its guidelines and examples point to glare on glasses, frames over the eyes, dim or uneven light, shadows on the face or behind the head, a smile or open mouth, a tilted head, standing too close to or too far from the camera, a patterned background such as tiles, a door panel or plant in shot, uniforms or clothing with insignia, red-eye, hats worn for non-religious and non-medical reasons, and, for babies, soothers or a parent’s hand.

Other sizes are compared on the passport photo sizes table. The UK passport photo page covers British passports, the Schengen visa photo page covers visas for EU countries, and HEIC to JPG converts iPhone pictures before you upload them.