Short answer
A French passport photo is 35 x 45 mm printed, with the head 32 to 36 mm measured to the top of the skull, not the hair, on a plain, light background such as light blue or light grey. White is not allowed. Glasses are accepted with thin frames only, and tinted or reflective lenses are not (service-public.gouv.fr, checked September 2026). The source read for this page gives no pixel size or file limit for a digital photo, so none is stated here.
A French passport photo is 35 x 45 mm, with a head of 32 to 36 mm measured to the top of the skull, on a plain light background such as light blue or light grey. The rule that catches people is the third one: white is not allowed. A wall that is perfect for a US or an Indian application is wrong here, and a head that is the right size by the UK’s reading can be too big by France’s.
This page puts the rules in one table. The figures were read from the French government’s service-public.gouv.fr page on passport photos on 17 September 2026, and they are the same ones getPNG’s passport photo maker uses. getPNG crops and places the photograph at these sizes. It does not judge the biometrics, and nothing here is a promise that your photo will be accepted. The French application also has its own way of taking the photo in, a digital route that is not in what was read for this page, so it is left out and not described from memory.
The table
| Decision | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Printed size | 35 x 45 mm, a portrait rectangle | service-public.gouv.fr |
| Head, chin to top of skull | 32 to 36 mm, hair not counted | same page |
| Background | Plain and light, such as light blue or light grey; white is not allowed | same page |
| Glasses | Thin frames only; no tinted or reflective lenses | same page |
| Digital photo size | Not published on the page read | not stated |
| File size | Not published on the page read | not stated |
Four rows are the authority’s own rules, shortened, and they were checked on 17 September 2026. The last two are blank on purpose. A number that cannot be traced to the page would be a number from memory, and the application you are filling in is the source that settles your case. If it shows a pixel size or a file limit, use that. The page can also change, so check it again on the day.
What the numbers add up to
The head band is the rule that does the work, so it helps to see what it means for the picture and not only for the ruler.
The head is 71 to 80 percent of the height. 32 / 45 = 0.71 and 36 / 45 = 0.80. That is a large head in a small frame, and it leaves very little room above and below. The usual mistake is a photograph taken from too far away and then cropped tight, which is soft as well as small.
At 300 dpi the print is about 413 x 531 pixels. 35 mm is 35 / 25.4 = 1.38 inches, which is 413 pixels, and 45 mm is 531. The head band is then 32 mm, about 378 pixels, to 36 mm, about 425 pixels, from chin to skull. Those are the numbers to expect on a print file. They are arithmetic from the millimetres, not a size the French page gives for an upload.
The hair is on top of that. Because the measurement stops at the skull, hair that stands up from your head adds to the picture without counting towards the head. A photograph that fits the band with the hair included can have a skull that is too small by this rule, and one that fills the frame to the top of the hair can have a skull that is too large. This is the detail that makes a photo that looks right fail, and it is why the French row is measured differently from its neighbours even though several of them also say 32 to 36 mm.
Put the three side by side, and the French rule is the one that needs the most care with the crop:
| Document | Paper size | Head | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| French passport | 35 x 45 mm | 32 to 36 mm, hair excluded | Plain and light; white not allowed |
| UK passport | 35 x 45 mm | 29 to 34 mm | Cream or light grey |
| Australian passport | 35 x 45 mm | 32 to 36 mm | Plain white or light grey |
UK passport photo requirements has the smaller head and the cream wall in full, and Australian passport photo requirements has the one that takes white. A photograph made for either is not a French one.
A light wall that is not white
The background is the rule most people get wrong, and the reason is that white is the default in their head. The French page asks for a plain, light background and gives light blue and light grey as examples, and it says white is not allowed. Both halves matter.
Plain means one even surface: no pattern, no texture, no door frame or picture behind you, and no shadow. A wall that is bright on the window side and dim on the other is not plain, and neither is the dark line a shadow draws where your head meets it. Stand about a metre in front of the wall so your shadow falls on the floor, and face a window so the light is even.
Light is a range, and not white is a limit on it. A pale wall can look white by eye and photograph as white, or as yellow under a warm lamp, so use daylight and look at the result on a screen before you commit. If the wall you have is a very pale grey, check it against something you know is white: if the two look the same on screen, the camera has turned your wall white and the photo will not do.
Do not paint the background afterwards, either. A replaced background is an edit, and an ID photo is checked for exactly that. A cutout tool is right for a sticker or a product picture and wrong here; passport photo backgrounds explains why. For the documents that do ask for white, and the ones that do not, white background photo sorts them out.
Check that the wall is not white
- Take the photo against the wall in daylight, and hold a sheet of plain white paper beside your face for one extra frame.
- Open both on screen and compare the wall with the paper.
You should see: the wall is visibly tinted next to the paper, a pale grey or a pale blue, with no shading across it and a clear edge between you and the wall everywhere, including around your hair.
If you do not: if the wall and the paper look the same, the wall is white as far as the camera can tell, so move to a wall with a colour or hang a pale grey sheet behind you. If one side is darker, face the window more squarely or move a metre away from the wall so the shadow falls on the floor.
Cropping to 35 x 45 mm
The crop is the same job as for any 35 x 45 mm document, with one extra step: you find the top of the skull, not the top of the hair. Start with a photograph that has clear space above the head and around the shoulders, taken from about two metres away at eye height, so you can crop in rather than out. A tight original cannot be made wider.
Work backwards from the skull to see how much picture you need. If your skull measures 1,200 pixels from chin to top on the original and you aim at the 71 to 80 percent band, the crop is 1,200 / 0.80 = 1,500 to 1,200 / 0.71 = about 1,690 pixels tall. If the skull is only 500 pixels tall, the crop would be near 700 pixels, and a file that small has to be enlarged for anything bigger, which only makes it soft. The fix is a new photograph taken from nearer, not a tighter crop.
You do not need to do the sum. The passport photo maker draws a guide band, and for the French passport it labels it as the top of the skull, not the hair. You move the photo until the skull and chin sit inside it.
Glasses
The page allows glasses with thin frames only, and it does not allow tinted or reflective lenses. That is stricter than Ireland, which accepts any frame that covers no part of the eyes, and more relaxed than the US visa, which does not accept glasses at all.
Each of those is something you can see on the picture: a thick frame, a colour in the lens, or a bright patch of glare. Glare depends on a window or lamp you cannot easily move, so the practical advice is still to take them off for the ten seconds the photo takes. If you wear them every day and the photograph without would not look like you, take several shots at different angles to the window and keep the one with the clearest lenses.
The same size, a different rule
Because 35 x 45 mm is shared with the UK, Ireland and Australia, a photograph cropped for one of them has the right paper size for the others. The size is the only thing it has in common.
- The head differs: 29 to 34 mm for the UK, and 32 to 36 mm for France and Australia, but measured to the skull only in France.
- The background differs: France rejects white, the UK names cream or light grey, and Australia accepts white or light grey.
- The glasses rule differs in all three.
If you need more than one document, take the photographs against a wall that each allows, and crop each from the original. Cropping one finished photo again loses pixels you cannot get back.
France also issues Schengen visas, and the French visa portal’s rules are close to these but not the same: its photo page asks for a plain, light background and a head of 32 to 36 mm, without the skull measurement the passport page names. Schengen visa photo requirements sets them out on their own, and it matters which page applies to your application.
Taking one at home
It is the same job as for any other country, with a wall that fits the rule:
- Find a plain wall in light grey or light blue with nothing on it, and stand about a metre in front of it so your shadow falls behind you.
- Face a window in daylight, on an overcast day if you can, with no flash and no ceiling light.
- Turn off portrait mode, beauty filters and skin smoothing, and use the rear camera.
- Have somebody take it from about two metres away at eye height, with your head and shoulders in the frame and clear space all round.
- Crop to 35 x 45 mm with the skull in the guide band.
- For a print, print at 100 percent with no border and no fit to page, then measure the cut photo with a ruler. For an upload, use the size the application asks for.
How to take a passport photo at home has the detail on each of those steps.
The free way
Crop your photo to 35 x 45 mm with the skull in the guide band
Choose French passport and the tool places your photo at 35 x 45 mm and shows the head against the 32 to 36 mm range, measured to the top of the skull, as you move the crop. It runs in your browser, so the photograph is never uploaded, and it never retouches it.
What the tool does, and what it does not
getPNG crops and places the photograph at the official size and shows you where the head sits against a guide range. For France it says that the range runs to the top of the skull, because that is how the page measures it.
It does not judge the photograph. Whether your expression reads as neutral, whether the light across your face is even, and whether the wall is light enough and plain enough are decided by the authority that receives the application. The page linked in the table is the only source that settles it. No website can promise your photo will be accepted, and one that does is telling you something it has no way of knowing.
The sizes for the other documents getPNG knows, with the official source for each, are in the passport photo requirements table. Before you upload any ID photo to a site, read whether it is safe to upload photos online.
Questions
What size is a French passport photo?
35 x 45 mm printed, a portrait rectangle. That is the same paper size as the UK, Irish and Australian passport photos and a different shape from the US passport photo, which is a 2 x 2 inch square. A photo cropped for the US has to be cropped again from the original.
Can a French passport photo have a white background?
No. The service-public.gouv.fr page asks for a plain, light background, such as light blue or light grey, and says white is not allowed. That makes France one of the documents where the colour most people assume is universal is wrong. Plain also means no shadow, no pattern and nothing hanging on the wall.
How big should the head be in a French passport photo?
32 to 36 mm, and the measurement stops at the top of the skull rather than at the top of the hair. In a 45 mm tall photo that is a head of roughly 71 to 80 percent of the height, with the hair standing above it. If your hair is voluminous, the crop needs more room above the head than a hair-included measurement would.
Can I wear glasses in a French passport photo?
Thin frames only, and no tinted or reflective lenses, according to the page getPNG's figures come from. Glare is the usual cause of trouble and depends on where the window or lamp is, so if you can take them off for the photo, take them off.
What size is the digital photo for a French passport?
This page cannot tell you. The source read for it gives the printed size, the head range, the background and the glasses rule, but no pixel size or file size for a digital photo, so none is stated. Use the figures that the application itself shows at the step where it asks for the photo.
Does getPNG make a French passport photo that will be accepted?
It crops and places your photograph at 35 x 45 mm, shows the head against the 32 to 36 mm band measured to the skull, and saves the file. It does not judge the photograph and it never changes the background. Whether the light, the expression and the wall are acceptable is decided by the authority that receives it.