Photo and signature sizes for exam and application forms

Read this first. This page is not official and has no connection with any of the bodies named on it. The figures were read in October 2026 and they change from one notice to the next. The notice you are applying under is the only authority; use this page to know what to look for in it.

How to read the upload rules in a notice

Every notice describes its uploads in the same four terms, though not always in the same place. Look for the format, which is nearly always JPG or JPEG. Look for the dimensions, given in pixels or in centimetres. Look for the largest file size. And look for the smallest, which is easy to miss and is the cause of many refusals.

Two things in a notice are worth reading twice. The main text and the annexure sometimes disagree, and the upload screen follows one of them. And a notice may tell you that something is not uploaded at all: several now take the photograph live, through the camera, while you fill in the form.

SSC

The Staff Selection Commission's notices for 2025 and 2026, including those for the Combined Graduate Level and Combined Higher Secondary Level examinations and for Selection Posts, ask for a scanned signature in JPEG or JPG format, between 10 and 20 KB, with image dimensions of about 6.0 cm in width by 2.0 cm in height. The annexures of some of the same notices give 4.0 cm by 2.0 cm instead.

In these notices the photograph is not uploaded as a file. It is captured live by the application while you fill in the form. Notices up to 2022 asked for a photo file of 20 to 50 KB, about 3.5 by 4.5 cm, which is why older pages still list one.

The notices give centimetres and kilobytes and no resolution. At 200 DPI, 6 by 2 cm is 472 × 157 pixels. The SSC page offers both signature sizes and the older photo size.

UPSC

The Union Public Service Commission states its limits in pixels. Its online application FAQ gives 350 × 350 pixels as the minimum and 1000 × 1000 as the maximum for both the photograph and the signature, in JPG or JPEG, each between 20 and 300 KB.

The examination notices for 2026, for the Civil Services and the Central Armed Police Forces examinations, narrow the file sizes: the photograph between 20 and 200 KB, and the signature no more than 100 KB. They ask you to sign three times, one below the other, in black ink on plain white paper, and to upload all three as a single image. They also take a live photograph in addition to the uploaded one.

UPSC gives a band of pixel sizes, not one size, so any size inside the band is in order. The UPSC page starts from 600 × 600 for the photograph and 500 × 400 for the signature image. Those are this site's choices, not the Commission's.

Bank exams through IBPS

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection prints "Guidelines for scanning and upload" in its recruitment notices. For the signature they give 140 × 60 pixels as the preferred size, a file between 10 and 20 KB, in JPG or JPEG, signed in black ink on white paper. The Signature Resizer opens with those figures.

The same guidelines also set out a photograph, a left thumb impression and a handwritten declaration. Those three are not given here, because their figures have not yet been read from a notice for this page. Take them from the notice you are applying under.

Railway recruitment

Railway Recruitment Board notices describe the signature as written in running hand, in black ink, inside a box of 50 mm by 20 mm, and uploaded as a JPG or JPEG at 100 DPI or more. The file size is the part that changes: some notices allow 10 to 40 KB and others 30 to 70 KB.

These railway figures were read from summaries of the notices, not from the notices themselves, so treat them as a pointer and confirm them. The 50 × 20 mm page starts at 30 to 40 KB, the range that sits inside both.

Kerala PSC

The Kerala Public Service Commission's notifications set out the photograph precisely: 150 pixels in width and 200 in height, in JPG format, not exceeding 30 KB, showing the face and shoulders against a white or light background. The candidate's name and the date the photograph was taken must be printed at the bottom of the picture.

A signature size of 150 × 100 pixels, also up to 30 KB, is the figure application guides publish. No Commission page confirming it was found, so compare it with the upload screen. The PSC page prints the name and date on the photo for you. Other state commissions set their own sizes.

PAN card

Protean, the agency that was formerly NSDL, publishes scanning specifications for PAN applications made online with uploaded images. The photograph is 3.5 by 2.5 cm and at most 20 KB. The signature is 2 by 4.5 cm and at most 10 KB. Both are colour JPEG files scanned at 200 DPI, which makes the photograph only 197 × 276 pixels.

The instructions give each size as two numbers without saying which is the width. The PAN page treats the photograph as upright and the signature as wide, the way they appear on the card. UTIITSL, the other agency that takes PAN applications, publishes its own instructions.

Why other pages give different figures

Search for any of these sizes and you will find pages that disagree with each other and with this one. There are a few ordinary reasons, and none of them means that somebody is making numbers up.

• Units. One page quotes centimetres and another the pixels those centimetres come to at some DPI the notice never stated.
• Main text and annexure. The SSC signature is 6 by 2 cm in one part of a notice and 4 by 2 cm in another.
• Old notices. A page written for the 2022 form still lists a photo that the 2026 form takes by camera.
• One body's figures applied to another. The 140 × 60 pixel signature belongs to IBPS and is often quoted for forms that never asked for it.

The way through is always the same: find the upload section of your own notice and use its numbers.

Why a file gets refused

The upload screen checks what a program can check. A file is turned away when it is over the maximum size or under the minimum, when it is not a JPG, or when its pixel size is outside what the form allows. A file that meets all of those is accepted by the screen.

Whether the application is then accepted is a different question, and it is decided by people. SSC's notices name a blurred signature and a miniature one, where the signature is a small mark in a large blank image, as the usual reasons a signature is rejected. Crop the signature close, sign in dark ink on white paper, and use a recent photograph in which you are clearly recognisable.

If a figure on this page is out of date, please tell us which notice says otherwise and it will be corrected.