Passport Photo & Signature Size Guide for Indian Government Forms
A wrong file size is one of the most common — and most avoidable — reasons an online application gets rejected before it even reaches the review stage. This guide covers the file size ranges commonly required across major Indian exam and job portals, and how to hit them without ruining photo quality.
Important: Government exam specifications change between application cycles. The ranges below reflect commonly published 2026 requirements, but always cross-check against the official notification PDF for the specific exam you're applying to before submitting.
Quick Reference Table
| Exam/Portal | Photo Size | Signature Size | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSC (CGL/CHSL/MTS/GD) | 20-50 KB | 10-20 KB | JPG |
| UPSC (CSE, NDA, CDS, CAPF) | 20-300 KB | 20-100 KB | JPG |
| UGC NET / CSIR NET (NTA) | 10-200 KB | 4-30 KB | JPG |
| Job portals (LinkedIn, Naukri) | Under 200 KB (typical) | — | JPG/PNG |
| College/University admissions | 100-300 KB (varies) | 50-150 KB (varies) | JPG/PDF |
Compress directly to your exam's range using our presets: 20KB · 50KB · 100KB · 200KB · 300KB.
SSC (CGL, CHSL, MTS, GD, CPO, JE, Steno)
SSC's specs are among the tightest — a signature between 10-20 KB is easy to overshoot if you scan at high resolution. Photos should stay in the 20-50 KB range, roughly 3.5×4.5 cm at standard passport-photo proportions.
Common mistake: scanning a signature at 300 DPI produces a file well over 20 KB before any compression — start from a smaller scan or compress aggressively, then check the preview for legibility rather than guessing.
→ Try: Compress Signature to 20KB
UPSC (Civil Services, NDA, CDS, CAPF, ESE, IFS)
UPSC gives more room — photos between 20-300 KB, signatures between 20-100 KB — but is strict about format (JPG only) and background (plain white). A common rejection cause: uploading a HEIC photo straight from an iPhone, which UPSC's portal doesn't accept. Convert to JPG first, then compress.
→ Try: Compress Photo to 100KB (a safe choice within UPSC's limit)
UGC NET / CSIR NET (NTA Portal)
NTA's requirements are photo 10-200 KB, signature 4-30 KB — note the signature ceiling here is unusually low. If your signature file won't get under 30 KB without becoming illegible, try re-scanning at a smaller physical crop (just the signature, minimal surrounding white space) rather than compressing a large scan down aggressively.
→ Try: Compress Signature to 20KB
Job Portals & Resume Uploads
LinkedIn, Naukri, Indeed, and most company career pages don't publish exact KB limits as strictly as government portals, but profile photos over 200 KB commonly get auto-compressed by the platform anyway (sometimes with visible quality loss). Compressing to under 200 KB yourself before uploading gives you control over how that compression happens.
→ Try: Compress Photo to 200KB
College & University Admission Portals
These vary the most — some ask for under 100 KB, others allow up to 300 KB or more for scanned certificates. When a specific number isn't published, 150-200 KB is a safe middle ground for a clear photo, and 300-500 KB for a scanned document with text that needs to stay readable.
Compress Photo to 150KB · Compress Scanned Document to 400KB
3 Tips That Apply Across Every Portal
- Compress a few KB under the stated maximum, not exactly at it — rounding differences between systems (see our MB vs KB explainer) can push a borderline file over the limit on the server side even if it looked fine locally.
- Check the preview before submitting, especially for signatures compressed near the minimum size — illegible signatures get flagged during manual verification even if the file technically uploads.
- Convert HEIC to JPG first if you're using an iPhone photo — most Indian government portals only accept JPG/JPEG, and HEIC files will be silently rejected or fail to upload at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if my file is even 1 KB over the limit?
Most portals reject the upload outright rather than accepting it anyway — there's usually no tolerance margin, so it's worth compressing a little under the maximum rather than exactly at it.
Can I use the same photo for multiple exams?
Yes, as long as it meets each exam's specific dimension and size requirements — you may need to compress the same source photo to different targets for different portals (e.g., 50 KB for SSC, 100 KB for UPSC).
My signature won't compress under the required size without becoming unreadable — what do I do?
Try re-scanning with a tighter crop around just the signature (removing excess white space reduces file size significantly before any compression), and make sure you're scanning in JPG, not PNG — PNG handles simple black-and-white signature scans far less efficiently than JPG.