Passport Photo Sheet documentation

Install Passport Photo Sheet

Passport Photo Sheet runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. After buying, download the app zip from your Polar receipt, unzip it, and drag Passport Photo Sheet to your Applications folder.

The app is signed and notarized by Apple. Confirm Open at the normal first-launch prompt.

The app works without a license key. The key in your receipt turns on automatic updates: enter it in Passport Photo Sheet → License…. Once a day, the app checks for a new version, shows what’s new, and installs it with Install and Relaunch. Passport Photo Sheet → Check for Updates… checks right away. A key works on 3 Macs. To move it to another Mac, choose License… → Deactivate This Mac first. Your receipt always has the latest version, too.

Take the photo

Most of what makes a passport photo accepted happens before the app: the light, the wall, the expression. The app can’t fix those, and doesn’t try.

Stand in front of a plain light wall. White, cream or light grey, as your document asks.
Face a window or a soft light, so there are no shadows on your face or behind you.
Ask someone to take the photo from about a meter away, with the camera at the height of your eyes.
Look straight at the camera, mouth closed, with a plain expression. Take off your glasses unless your document allows them.
Leave space around your head and shoulders. A photo cut close around the head can’t be made into a passport photo.

A photo from a phone has plenty of pixels. Send it to your Mac with AirDrop, or save it from Photos.

Pick the document

The window opens on Document, set to the document most people in your Mac’s region need. Pick another from the menu. Each one shows its size, the head size it allows and how the head is measured, the online form’s pixel size when there is one, its source (“Source: gov.uk, checked November 2026”, a link to the page) and a list called Check these yourself.

Custom size takes a width and height in millimeters, and a head size from and to. Leave the head size empty if your rule doesn’t give one.

Not in the List? shows the countries that aren’t in the app, each with the reason and a link to its official page. “Canada only accepts photos taken in person by a commercial photographer or photo studio, with the studio’s name on the back” is one of them.

The documents and their sources

Every number comes from the page in this table, read on the day given.

Document	Photo	Head	Measured	Online form	Source	Checked
Australia passport	35 × 45 mm	32 to 36 mm	chin to crown		passports.gov.au	November 14, 2026
China visa	33 × 48 mm	28 to 33 mm	height of the head		china-consulate.gov.cn	November 14, 2026
Ireland passport	35 × 45 mm	none given	head to mid torso	at least 715 × 951	ireland.ie	November 14, 2026
Japan passport	35 × 45 mm	34 ± 2 mm	chin to the top of the hair, from the page’s diagram		mofa.go.jp	November 14, 2026
Netherlands passport	35 × 45 mm	26 to 30 mm (age 11 and over)	chin to crown		government.nl	November 14, 2026
Schengen visa	35 × 45 mm	32 to 36 mm	chin to the top of the head, not the hair		diplo.de and france-visas.gouv.fr	November 14, 2026
South Korea passport	35 × 45 mm	32 to 36 mm	chin to the top of the head, not the hair	413 × 531	passport.go.kr	November 14, 2026
United Kingdom passport	35 × 45 mm	29 to 34 mm	crown to chin	at least 600 × 750	gov.uk	November 14, 2026
United States passport	2 × 2 in	1 to 1 3/8 in	bottom of the chin to the top of the head, not the hair		fam.state.gov	November 14, 2026

A few notes on the table:

Australia allows 35 to 40 mm wide and 45 to 50 mm high. The app makes 35 × 45 mm. Ireland allows 35 × 45 up to 38 × 50 mm, and the app makes 35 × 45 mm.
Ireland gives no head size, so the app makes the head about half the photo’s height, and the window says the rule gives none.
The United States rules come from the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual, the rules its passport officers follow, because the travel.state.gov photo page couldn’t be read.
The Schengen visa uses the numbers that Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and France-Visas both give. Each consulate can ask for more.
The Netherlands asks for at least 400 dpi and the German visa sheet for 600, so those sheets are saved at that resolution.

Open the photo

Drop the photo on the window, or click Choose a Photo…, or choose File → Choose a Photo… (⌘O). A JPEG, HEIC or PNG works. The app reads the photo and never changes it.

If the file isn’t a picture, the window says “This file isn’t a picture the app can open. Try a JPEG, HEIC or PNG.”

Place the two lines

The app shows your photo with two yellow lines and a white frame around the part that becomes the passport photo.

The top line is the top of the head, and its label says what your document means by it: Crown of the head, Top of the head, not the hair, Top of the hair or Top of the head.
The bottom line is Chin.

When the app finds a face, it places the lines and says “Face found. Check that the lines sit right.” The top of the head is an estimate, because hair hides it, so check that line first.

When it doesn’t find a face, it says “No face found. Drag the lines to the top of the head and the chin, or click where each one goes.” Click on the top of the head, then on the chin. The app won’t save until both lines are placed. Then it says “Lines placed by hand. Check that they sit right.”

Drag a line to move it, or click on the photo and the nearer line jumps there. The frame follows: the app makes the head the middle of the allowed size and centers it.

If the photo leans, the app turns it so the eyes are level. Straighten turns it a few more degrees either way.

The checks

On the right is the finished photo, with a band where the top of the head may be: green when the head is inside the allowed size, red when it isn’t. Under it, Checks:

“The head is 31.5 mm, inside 29 to 34 mm.”
“The picture is cut too close around the head, so the head can’t be made smaller. Use one with more space around it.” The head then comes out too big, and the app says so instead of adding white edges.
“The eyes are level.”, or “The eyes lean by 3°. Straighten the photo.”
“Enough pixels to print sharp (548 per inch).”, or a warning that it will look soft or blurry.

Check these yourself lists what the app can’t see, from the document’s own page: the background, glasses, how recent the photo must be, the paper. For the United Kingdom it includes: The page says printed photos must “not be a cut down version of a larger picture”. For Australia: The page says: “We do not recommend using an online passport photo service or a mobile app. These may put you in danger of identity fraud.”

The app doesn’t change the background or retouch your face. Most rules forbid altered photos. Whether a photo is accepted is always the passport office’s decision.

Save the sheet

At the bottom of the window:

Paper: 4 × 6 in, 10 × 15 cm, A4 or Letter. The line next to it says how many photos fit, like “6 photos fit.”
Save as: JPEG for a photo kiosk or PDF.
No margin: shows up when the whole paper fits more photos, like “No margin (6 photos)” for 2 × 2 inch photos on a 4 × 6. The line under it says “With no margin, a kiosk may trim a little off the outer photos.”

Under the buttons, the window reminds you: “Print at 100%. At a kiosk, pick the 4 × 6 or 10 × 15 print with no borders added.” When Save Sheet… and Print… are off, it says why next to them, like “Place both lines on the head to turn on saving.”

Click Save Sheet… (⌘S) and pick where. The window then says, for example, “Saved 6 photos on a 10 × 15 cm sheet, as a JPEG at 300 dpi. Take it to a photo kiosk or print it at 100%.” If a check didn’t pass, it lists it under “Saved, but some checks didn’t pass:”. Show in Finder shows the file.

The sheet has as many copies as fit, centered, with thin grey cut marks at the corners. It turns sideways when that fits more. A JPEG is 300 dpi (400 for the Netherlands, 600 for the Schengen visa), so a kiosk prints it at the right size. A PDF’s page is the paper’s exact size.

By default the app keeps 3 mm from the edge of a 4 × 6 or 10 × 15 print and 2 mm between photos, because a kiosk may trim a little off the edges of a print with no border. With No margin the photos touch and fill the paper. Cut where they meet, and know that a kiosk may make the outer photos a little small.

The app never replaces a file you didn’t choose to replace.

Print

Print… (⌘P) opens the Mac’s print window with the paper size and orientation set. Print at 100%, or “actual size”, never “fit to page”. At a kiosk, pick the 4 × 6 or 10 × 15 print with no borders added.

To check your printer, print to a PDF first (PDF → Save as PDF in the print window) and measure a photo on paper with a ruler after printing.

Save a photo for an online form

For the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Korea, Save for Online Form… saves one photo at the pixel size their online application asks for: at least 600 × 750 for the United Kingdom, at least 715 × 951 for Ireland, 413 × 531 for South Korea. The window says “Saved one photo of 600 × 750 pixels for the online form.”

The United Kingdom’s page also asks for a file of “at least 50KB and no more than 10MB”, and Ireland’s for one no larger than 9 MB. The app saves the photo at the best quality, reads the size of the saved file and lists it with the checks, like “The file is 65 KB.” A very plain or small picture can stay under 50 KB even at the best quality. Then the window says the file isn’t the size the online form asks for, and to use a sharper or larger photo.

Privacy

Your photo stays on your Mac. The app finds the face on the Mac itself, reads only the photo you open, and writes only the files you save. Once a day the app sends its license key to my update server, updates.flaviocopes.com, to check for a new version, and about once a week it checks the key with Polar, the shop. There are no accounts and no analytics.

Troubleshooting

The app doesn’t find my face

Place the lines yourself: click on the top of your head, then on your chin, then drag them to fine-tune. The face finding uses the Mac’s own face detection and hasn’t been tested on many real photos yet, so this can happen with any photo.

The head is too big and the photo runs past the edge

The photo was taken too close or cut too close around the head. Take it again from a bit further back, with space above the head and around the shoulders.

It says it will look soft

The photo has few pixels for the head. Use the original photo from the phone, not a copy sent through a chat app, which makes photos smaller.

The printed photo is the wrong size

Print at 100% or “actual size”. Check that the kiosk or the print shop didn’t add a border or crop to fill. If it trims the edges, turn No margin off.

My country isn’t in the list

Click Not in the List? to see why. If your country accepts photos printed at home, use Custom size with the numbers from its official page.

Passport Photo Sheet isn’t made by, affiliated with or endorsed by any government or passport office, or by Apple. Country names are used only to say which rules the app follows.