How To Print Your Own Passport Photographs And Save Money

Not so very long ago, renewing or applying for a UK Passport involved a visit to a photographer, a camera shop that offered a passport photo service, or, as a last resort, using one of those photo booths that seem to be situated at railway stations, shopping centres and other public areas.

All of these options were effective in getting the job done but the time taken and cost incurred was relatively high. What’s more, it usually involved making a special trip to the location of the service that you intended to use.

Now, with the advent of high quality photo inkjet printers in many people’s own homes, the trip to the photographer or camera shop is no longer necessary. You can now print your own passport sized photographs that will be acceptable to the passport authorities.

Even if you don’t have a suitable photo-quality printer at home, most shopping centres have photo print services and there are several online providers who will print your images and post them to you.

When creating your own UK Passport Photo you must remember to adhere to the Passport Office’s strict guidelines which can be summarised as follows:

Your photographs must be:

• Identical
• Taken within the last month
• 45 mm high x 35 mm wide
• Taken with a plain off-white, cream or light grey plain background. Your features must be clearly distinguishable against the background colour
• Printed onto matt or satin, (low-gloss), plain white photo-quality paper. There should be no watermarks, embossing or printing on the back
• Pristine and undamaged, for example, no folds, creases or indentations from paperclips;
• Of you on your own without anything or anyone else
• Composed so as to include a close-up of your head and shoulders with your head, from the bottom of your chin to your crown measuring between 29mm and 34mm high
• Clear of any marks or writing on the front and back.

You must also ensure that:

• The images are in sharp focus and clear
• The photographs have a strong, clear definition between the face and the background
• Your photographs are printed to a professional standard. Photographs printed at home may not be of an acceptable quality so if your printer isn’t up to it take your file into a photo centre to be printed.

When posing for the photographs remember:

• There should be no shadows
• You should be facing forwards, looking straight towards the camera
• You should have a neutral expression, with your mouth closed
• Your eyes must be open and clearly visible. There should be no sunglasses or heavily tinted glasses, and your hair must not cover your eyes
• If you wear glasses, ensure that there is no reflection or glare on your glasses and the frames should not cover your eyes. You may find it easier to remove your glasses
• Your full head must be shown, without any head covering, unless it is worn for religious beliefs or medical reasons
• There should be nothing covering your face. Please also make sure nothing covers the outline of your eyes, nose or mouth

That’s the clever bit, you don’t need Photoshop or any kind of photo editing software in order to get a 100% compliant UK Passport Photo.

There are now a number of very clever websites that offer free software that does all of the hard work for you.

Once you have taken your photograph – there are usually fully detailed guidelines on the site as to how you should do this – all you do is upload it and then follow the simple directions given on the screen.

In just a few moments the results will be ready. Your fully compliant, correctly sized, UK Passport Photo is ready to be printed or sent to an online printing service. The file generated should be a high definition image file of 600dpi resolution. Some online software, all of which should be completely free to use, also deals with the white background processing necessary to obtain the clean white background that is necessary for some countries.