PAN card photo and signature resizer — 20 KB photo and 10 KB signature at 200 DPI

How to use PAN Card Photo & Signature Resizer

1. Under What are you uploading?, choose Photo or Signature. Each option shows its target size.
2. Choose the matching image: a recent colour photo, or a photo or scan of your signature.
3. For the photo, keep Fit to the size on Crop to fill and Keep which part when cropping on Top (keeps the head).
4. For the signature, choose Fit with white margins so no stroke is cut, or Crop to fill with Centre if the signature already fills the image.
5. Press Resize for upload and check the Check against the rules table.
6. Download the file and repeat for the other item.

The official rules (checked 2026-10-02)

From Protean eGov Technologies’ Guidelines for filling PAN New Application (Form 49A) — scanned images, which Protean publishes for the Income Tax Department:

The pixel sizes follow from the centimetres: at 200 DPI, 2.5 cm is 197 px and 3.5 cm is 276 px; 4.5 cm is 354 px and 2 cm is 157 px. The tool also writes 200 DPI into each file.

Check the current guidelines on the Protean site before you submit. If you apply through UTIITSL, read that agency’s own form.

What it does and when to use it

The online PAN application lets you upload scanned images of your photo and signature. Both have small limits, and a phone photo is far too big. The signature limit in particular, 10 KB, is one of the tightest you will meet.

This page sets the exact pixel size, writes 200 DPI into the file, and lowers the JPEG quality only as far as needed to get under the limit. You do not need to know any of the settings.

Use it when:

• you are applying for a new PAN online through Protean and choose to upload scanned images,
• your photo or signature was rejected for size and you need a smaller file,
• you have the images on your phone and do not want to send them to a website.

For a signature that is still on a messy phone photo, clean it first with the Signature Extractor, then bring the result here.

How it works

The work is done by a background worker in your browser.

1. Open. Your picture is decoded with its rotation applied. Any transparency is filled with white.
2. Shape. With Crop to fill, the tool takes the largest rectangle of the target shape, centred left to right; top to bottom it follows your anchor choice. With Fit with white margins, the whole picture is shrunk to fit and white fills the rest.
3. Size. The image is scaled to exactly 197 × 276 px (photo) or 354 × 157 px (signature).
4. File size. The tool saves a JPEG at top quality. If that is over the limit, it searches downwards, no lower than 30% quality, for the best file under 20 KB or 10 KB. It never changes the pixel size to meet the limit.
5. DPI. 200 DPI is written into the JPEG header, so the file prints at the stated centimetres.

If even 30% quality cannot reach the limit, the tool shows the smallest size it got and suggests a plainer background and even light.

Worked examples

These crops are worked out by the tool’s own geometry function.

A photo from a phone, 3,024 × 4,032 px. The PAN photo shape (197 × 276) is a little narrower than the phone’s 3 : 4. The tool keeps the full height and a 2,878 px wide strip from the centre, trimming 73 px from the left and about the same from the right. It then scales that to 197 × 276 px. That is 54,372 pixels, which gives about 3 bits per pixel within 20 KB, a comfortable budget.

A signature photographed on a page, 4,032 × 3,024 px, with Crop to fill and Centre. The signature shape is 354 × 157, about 2.25 : 1. The tool keeps the full width and a 1,788 px tall band from the middle. If your signature is smaller than the page, it ends up tiny in the frame. Crop the photo close to the signature first, or use the Signature Extractor to trim it automatically.

A clean signature, 1,500 × 500 px, with Fit with white margins. The 3 : 1 signature is fitted inside 354 × 157 px. It becomes 354 × 118 px, with white bands above and below. Nothing is cut, and plain white compresses well, which helps with the 10 KB limit.

Tips for the photo and the signature

Photo

• Use a recent colour photo against a plain, light background with your face clearly visible.
• Fill most of the frame with your head and shoulders before you resize, so your face is not small in a 197 × 276 px image.
• Avoid filters and dark backgrounds; they add noise and make the 20 KB limit harder to meet.

Signature

• Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen. The guideline asks for a colour JPEG, so you do not need to convert it to black and white.
• Photograph it in daylight, straight from above, with no shadow from your phone.
• Keep the signature large on the page, or crop it before you resize.

Limits and tips

• The reading of the cm figures. The guideline does not say which measurement is the height. The tool’s reading is the natural one for a photo and a signature, but if the form says otherwise, follow it and use Resize Image in KB and Pixels.
• Background is your responsibility. The tool does not check it.
• Very busy photos may not fit under 20 KB at this exact size. A plainer background is the fix.
• This is not the e-PAN. The tool only prepares images for the application form.
• Rules change. Figures were checked on 2026-10-02. Always confirm them in the latest guidelines.
• Other forms. The IBPS Photo & Signature Resizer and the UPSC Photo & Signature Resizer handle exam forms with different limits.