US passport photo maker
You took a photo on your phone, but you are not sure it meets US passport rules for size, head height, or background. This free in-browser tool sizes your image to a 2 by 2 inch (600 by 600 pixel) photo, removes or whitens the background, and helps you frame your head before you export. Everything runs on your device, so your photo never leaves your browser, and you can swap the background or fine tune the crop as many times as you need.
Drop a photo, or click to choose
A clear, front-facing head-and-shoulders shot works best. JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC.
The background remover downloads a one-time model the first time you use it. Your photo itself never leaves your device.
- Files never leave your device
- Runs in your browser
- Free, no signup
The 2x2 inch and 600x600 pixel spec
US passports, passport cards, and most US visas commonly require a square photo that is 2 inches by 2 inches, which is the same as 51 by 51 millimeters, or 600 by 600 pixels at 300 DPI. The square shape is the key detail. A normal phone photo is rectangular, so it has to be cropped to an even square before it will be accepted.
This tool exports at 600 by 600 pixels so the proportions are correct out of the box. If you plan to print, 600 by 600 pixels at 300 DPI lands at exactly 2 by 2 inches on paper. If you submit online, the same file works for most digital forms, though some systems also enforce a maximum file size.
Treat these numbers as the values that are usually required and confirm them against the official guidance at travel.state.gov before you submit. Requirements can change, and the official source is the only authority on what will actually be accepted. You can read more about the square format on the 2x2 passport photo page.
Head size and positioning
Beyond the overall size, US guidance commonly states that your head, measured from the bottom of your chin to the top of your head, should be between 1 and 1 and 3/8 inches tall. As a share of the photo, that works out to roughly 50 to 69 percent of the total height, with your face centered and looking straight at the camera.
The tool helps you frame this by letting you adjust the crop so your head sits inside that range, rather than being too small in a wide shot or cropped too tightly at the top. Getting the head height right is one of the most common reasons photos are returned, so it is worth taking a moment to line it up.
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What the tool cannot do is judge whether your chin, the top of your head, and your eye line are positioned exactly as a reviewer expects. It moves and sizes pixels, but it does not measure your real anatomy. Use the framing guides as a starting point and check the final result against the official examples on travel.state.gov.
The white background and how the in-browser swap works
US passport photos commonly require a plain white or off-white background with no shadows behind you. Busy walls, colored backdrops, and shadows cast by a lamp or window are all frequent reasons for rejection, so a clean, even background matters as much as the size.
This tool separates you from your original background and places you on a solid white background, so a photo taken against a messy room can be cleaned up without a studio. Because everything runs locally in your browser, your image is never uploaded to a server. The background swap, the crop, and the export all happen on your own device, which keeps a personal document private.
If white is not quite right for your situation, or you want to compare results, you can redo the swap on the white background page or start from the general passport photo maker. The tool evens out exposure as well, which helps when one side of your face is brighter than the other, but it cannot rescue a photo that is very dark or heavily blurred.
Glasses, expression, and pose the tool cannot fix
Some rules are about you, not the file, and no editor can change them after the fact. US guidance commonly asks for a neutral expression with both eyes open, your face square to the camera, and no hat or head covering except for religious or medical reasons. Glasses have not been allowed since 2016, so they need to come off before you take the shot.
This tool cannot add an open eye, remove glasses you were wearing, straighten a tilted head, or turn a smile into a neutral expression. Those depend entirely on the original photo. If your pose or expression is off, the most reliable fix is to retake the picture rather than to edit around it.
The same applies to lighting quality and focus. The tool can even out exposure and place you on white, but it cannot decide whether a reviewer will consider the shot sharp enough or whether the lighting is flat and shadow free. Aim for soft, even light and a relaxed, straight on pose before you bring the photo into the tool.
DV lottery photos and printing 2x2 copies
The US Diversity Visa lottery, often called the green card lottery, uses the same 600 by 600 pixel square photo as a standard passport application. Its online system is strict and will automatically reject images that are the wrong size or that place the head outside the expected range, so the 2x2 framing in this tool is a good fit for that submission too.
Because the DV system checks dimensions and head placement automatically, it is worth exporting at the full 600 by 600 pixels and confirming the head sits within the 50 to 69 percent band before you upload. If the form also limits file size, you can shrink the export on the compress to KB page without changing the dimensions.
For a printed copy, the 600 by 600 pixel file prints at 2 by 2 inches at 300 DPI. You can place several squares on a single 4 by 6 inch print at a pharmacy or photo kiosk to get multiple copies at once. As always, treat these specifics as commonly required and verify the current rules at travel.state.gov before you rely on them.
Children, renewals, and reusing the spec
The 2 by 2 inch format is not only for adult first-time applicants. A passport renewal uses the same 600 by 600 square, so the photo you build here works for a renewal as well as a new book. If you keep a copy of the file, you also have a ready source the next time a US form asks for a 2 by 2 photo, since the same size travels across many of them.
Photos of babies and young children follow the same size and background rules, but the pose rules are relaxed. An infant does not need a neutral expression or open eyes, and the child should be the only person in the frame with no hands or supports visible. The background still has to be plain white, which is the hard part with a small child, so laying them on a plain white sheet and shooting from above is a common approach. The tool can clean up the background and size the result, but it cannot ask a toddler to hold still, so a usable capture is the part that takes patience. Confirm the current child-photo rules at travel.state.gov.