Schengen visa photo — 35 × 45 mm, face 70–80% of the frame, and why your consulate's checklist decides

For a Schengen visa, plan on a 35 × 45 mm colour photo with a plain white or light background, your face filling 70–80% of the frame (31.5 to 36 mm from chin to crown), looking straight at the camera, not retouched and taken recently, within six months or less depending on the consulate. Those figures come from German missions’ official checklists, not from a single EU rule. The EU Visa Code only requires the photo to meet the international ICAO standard, which is why the consulate that handles your application has the final word on the details.

Where the rules come from

There are three layers, and it helps to know which one you are reading.

1. The Visa Code (Regulation 810/2009). Article 10 says an applicant must present a photograph to the standard in Article 13. Article 13 says the photo’s technical requirements follow ICAO Document 9303, Part 1, 6th edition.
2. ICAO 9303. The international standard for machine-readable travel documents. Consulates turn it into the practical figures in their checklists.
3. The consulate’s checklist. This is where size, number of copies, background, age limit and any extra rules are spelled out. It is the document to follow.

Three official checklists compared

All three come from German missions, read on 21 October 2026. They show how much the details vary even within one country’s network.

If you live in the UK, the US, Canada or Australia and your passport needs a Schengen visa, look up the current checklist from the embassy, consulate or visa centre of your destination country where you will apply. Its photo line is the one that counts.

Making the photo with this tool

1. Add a well-lit photo that shows your whole head and the top of your shoulders. The Photo type is set to Schengen visa.
2. Keep Show face-position guides on. Place the top of the head on the yellow line and the chin in the blue band, using drag, the Zoom slider or the − and + buttons, and the Horizontal position and Vertical position sliders. Reset puts the crop back to the start.
3. Leave Background on Keep the original unless your checklist allows edits.
4. Pick a Print sheet option and press Make passport photos.

The preset uses a white background colour, because that is the strictest of the shades in the checklists above.

What the Schengen preset outputs

• One photo of 413 × 531 pixels, 35 × 45 mm at 300 DPI.
• A 4 × 6 inch sheet as JPEG, PDF or both, with 8 copies in two rows of four, 2 mm apart, each outlined by a thin grey cutting line.
• Guide positions: crown about 4.1 mm from the top, chin between 35.6 and 40.1 mm. That band is the 31.5–36 mm head range turned into positions on the photo.

There is no separate digital file, because none of these checklists gives a pixel size. If an online form asks for one, the Resize Image in KB and Pixels tool can make it from the single photo.

Printing and packing

Eight copies on one sheet covers a checklist that wants two, plus spares for a later application within the photo’s age limit. Print the sheet on photo paper at actual size, not scaled to the page, and measure one photo before you cut: 45 mm tall, 35 mm wide. If your checklist says how photos are attached to the form, follow it; either way, keep them clean and uncreased.

Biometrics at the appointment

The Visa Code expects you to appear in person at a first application. A photograph is scanned or taken there, and your 10 fingerprints are collected digitally. If your fingerprints were entered in the Visa Information System less than 59 months before a new application, they are normally copied across instead of taken again. Children under 12 are exempt from fingerprinting. Consulates may use an external service provider for this step, which the Visa Code allows under the consulate’s supervision.

Before the appointment: a quick check

• Is the photo 35 × 45 mm, with the head between the yellow line and the blue band?
• Is the background plain and in the shade your checklist names?
• Are both eyes open and uncovered, the mouth closed and the head straight?
• Is the face centred on the vertical guide line, with its edges visible?
• Is the photo newer than your checklist’s limit (three or six months in the examples above)?
• No retouching, filters or beauty mode?

What the tool leaves to you

The guide lines come from the 70–80% rule, not from recognising a face. The tool cannot see shadows, reflections in glasses, closed eyes, a tilted head or an expression, and it cannot know when the photo was taken. It also cannot confirm a consulate’s acceptance. Only the consulate decides.

Related tools

• Passport Photo Maker has the same crop for UK, US, India and Canada sizes.
• Image to PDF combines scanned documents into one file for an online form.
• Image Compressor shrinks scans that exceed an upload limit.
• Background Remover is the on-device model on its own, for non-official photos.

Checklists change without notice. Download the current one from your consulate before you print.