Printing passport photos at home costs a fraction of a photo booth and takes minutes — but only if the final print is the exact physical size the authority requires. The most common home-printing mistake is a photo that looks right on screen but comes out a few millimetres off because of scaling. Here is how to get it right.
The golden rule: print at 100% / actual size
A passport photo is defined by its physical dimensions (e.g. 2 x 2 in or 35 x 45 mm), not by pixels on screen. To hit that size on paper:
- Export the photo at 300 DPI.
- Print at 100% / actual size — never "fit to page" or "shrink to fit".
- Turn off automatic cropping / borderless auto-scaling in the printer driver, which silently resizes the image.
Use a 4x6 sheet to save ink and paper
Rather than printing one small photo on a large sheet, lay several copies onto a standard 4 x 6 inch photo print:
- A 4 x 6 sheet fits six 2 x 2 inch US photos, or several 35 x 45 mm photos, with room for cut lines.
- 4 x 6 is the cheapest, most universally available print size — you can also take the sheet to any pharmacy or kiosk print service.
- At 300 DPI a 4 x 6 sheet is 1200 x 1800 pixels.
Paper and printer settings
- Use glossy or matte photo paper, not plain paper — plain paper looks dull and can be rejected.
- Set the printer to its photo / best quality mode and the correct paper type.
- Print in colour, even for a neutral photo, so skin tones are accurate.
- Do a test print and measure with a ruler before printing several copies.
Cutting the photos
- Use a guillotine trimmer or a steel ruler and a sharp craft knife for straight edges.
- Cut just inside the guide lines so no line remains on the photo.
- Keep edges square — crooked cuts can cause rejection at submission.
Prepare a print-ready sheet in your browser
GetShot Passport exports both a single 300 DPI photo and a correctly scaled 4 x 6 print sheet with cut marks, sized to your country's spec — all in your browser, with the photo never uploaded. It handles the crop and layout; you just print at actual size.
Sources
FAQ
Can I print passport photos at home? Yes, if you print at 300 DPI, at 100% actual size, on photo paper, with auto-cropping turned off. Some countries (for example Canada) require professional prints — check your authority first.
What size paper for passport photos? A 4 x 6 inch photo sheet is the standard: cheap, widely printable, and fits multiple copies with cut lines.
Why did my printed photo come out the wrong size? Almost always because "fit to page" or auto-crop scaling was left on. Always print at 100% and measure the result with a ruler.