The background colour a passport photo needs
Open the photograph, put the specified ground behind the face, and save it at full size. What each body asks for — and where that wording comes from — is in the table below.
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF and ICO open straight away. HEIC from an iPhone pulls a decoder the first time it meets one.
The ground, the edge and the shadow appear here once a photo is open.
Nothing is sent anywhere: the picture is read into this page and stays in it.
What each body asks for
These instructions are published, they are not secret, and they are also not written for each other. One says plain white; another says light-coloured, preferably white; a third says white and then shows an example that is clearly not pure white. The table reads each one on its own terms and names the ground that satisfies it.
| Where you are applying | Background the instruction asks for | Ground | Size it also states |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indian passportThe photograph specification published with the Passport Seva online application. | Plain white background, no border, face square to the camera | #FFFFFF | 35 × 45 mm |
| Indian visa and OCIThe photo specification attached to the online visa and OCI application forms. | Plain light background, white in practice; the face centred in a square frame | #FFFFFF | 51 × 51 mm square |
| Staff Selection CommissionThe photograph instructions in SSC examination notices. | Light-coloured, preferably white, background on a recent colour photograph | #FFFFFF | Passport size, as stated in the notice |
| Public-sector bank recruitmentThe scanning and upload guidelines annexed to IBPS-conducted notifications. | Light-coloured, preferably white, background with the face filling most of the frame | #FAFAFA | As given in the scanning annexure of the notification |
| National Testing Agency examinationsThe photograph instructions in NTA information bulletins. | White background, the candidate's face uncovered and evenly lit | #FFFFFF | As stated in that year's information bulletin |
| State public service commissions and university formsThe individual commission's or university's own application instructions. | Plain white in most notices; a few accept any plain light ground | #FFFFFF | Stated per notice, commonly 35 × 45 mm |
Read on 12 September 2026 from what each body publishes, kept by the editor of this site, next read again on 31 March 2027. Recruitment cycles reissue these instructions and states differ from one another, so the notice you are applying under is the one that decides. The size column is recorded because the same instruction states it; this page does not cut a photograph to it.
Reading the instruction rather than guessing at it
Two words do most of the work. Plain is about detail: no pattern, no furniture, no shadow cast on the wall behind the head, no gradient from a lamp to one side. White is about value. A photograph can fail on either independently, and the commonest rejection is a photograph that is white enough but not plain — a corner of a door frame, or the shadow of the head on the wall behind it.
Replacing the ground fixes both at once, because the replacement has no detail by construction. What it cannot fix is the light on the face. If the original was lit from one side hard enough to throw a shadow on the wall, the face still carries that light after the wall is gone, and some reviewers read an unevenly lit face as a failure of the same instruction. That is a photograph to take again, not one to correct here.
Where the instruction also states a size, it is in the table — and this page does not act on it. Cutting a photograph down to 35 by 45 millimetres with the face at a specified height in the frame is a crop, and a crop is a different operation with different rules. Get the ground right here, then take the file wherever you crop.
Where to go next
- White background rules for Indian formsWhat plain white means across passport, commission and bank portals.
- White backgroundOpens on document white, with the off-white escape hatch beside it.
- Hair, fur and glassesWhat an edge can and cannot be recovered from.
- Change the backgroundOpen a photo, select the subject, put a new ground behind it.
The image you open is read by this page and by nothing else — there is no server behind this domain that could receive it, and the outline is worked out by arithmetic running inside your own browser rather than by something your photo is handed to.