Sri Lanka Passport Photo Size Maker

A Sri Lanka passport size photo is 35×45mm. That is the same measurement whether you are searching for it in cm, inches, or pixels, so here it is converted into the units people usually search for:

Beyond the raw dimensions, the spec calls for a full front view with both ears visible, eyes looking directly at the camera, no hats or head coverings, and no glasses or eyewear that changes your appearance (not wearing glasses at all is recommended). The top of your head should sit at least 3mm from the top edge of the photo, with no border around the finished print, and the ratio works out to roughly 7:9, so it will not fit neatly inside a square frame meant for something like an Indian or US passport photo.

Two commonly used references for this spec disagree on one detail. A widely cited photo-size table lists the background as light grey, while separate official-style guidance says white, plain, no patterns. We are showing both here instead of quietly picking one, because the underlying rule either way is the same: a plain, unpatterned, evenly lit background with no shadows behind you. A neutral white or light grey wall or backdrop satisfies both readings.

If your specific application form or counter names one colour directly, go with that instead. Otherwise, the photo maker above works fine with either shade, since it only crops and resizes what you give it. Getting the actual backdrop right happens when you take the photo, not afterward, so a plain wall, sheet, or piece of light-coloured cardstock behind you is worth setting up before you snap the shot.

You do not need Photoshop, a photo studio, or any editing skill to make a Sri Lanka passport size photo that meets the spec above. Take a clear, front-facing photo on your phone against a plain wall, then upload it to the photo maker at the top of this page. Drag and resize the shot until your head lines up with the guide, and it exports a file cropped to exactly 35×45mm at 827×1063px, ready to print or upload wherever your application asks for it.

This works just as well if you already have a photo you like sitting on your phone or computer, whether it came from a studio that printed the wrong size or one you took yourself years ago. Rather than paying for a reprint, upload it to the tool above and let it do the resizing for you.

One thing this photo resizer will not do for you is swap the background after the fact or retouch your face, so it is worth getting the wall, lighting, and expression right at the time you take the photo. Everything else, the cropping, resizing, and head positioning, happens for free, right in your browser, with nothing ever uploaded to a server or saved anywhere.

Some people prefer to make their passport size photo in an editor they already know. If that is you, set your canvas in Photoshop or GIMP to 3.5×4.5cm at 600 DPI (827×1063px in pixel terms), place your photo on it, and crop so the head height lands between 31.5mm and 36mm with roughly 3mm of clear space above the crown. It is doable, it is just a fair amount of manual measuring to get the head size exactly right.

If you are laying photos out in Microsoft Word to print several copies on one page, crop your photo to size first using the tool above, then insert a table in Word, set one cell to 3.5cm by 4.5cm under table properties, and paste the cropped image into that cell before copying it across the page. Most people find it faster to skip the manual editor work altogether and let the tool on this page handle the cropping and resizing automatically.

There is no single worldwide standard for a "passport size photo," each country sets its own. Sri Lanka's 35×45mm rectangle matches the physical dimensions used by the Philippines, and the UK and Australia also use a 35×45mm frame, though the exact head-height range and background rules still shift from one to the next. India and the US both use a 2×2in square (51×51mm) instead, Canada uses 50×70mm, New Zealand works from a digital 3:4 ratio rather than a printed size, and Bangladesh uses a larger 45×55mm rectangle. None of these sizes are interchangeable, so a photo cropped for one country's application generally will not pass for another, even if it looks close on screen.

A visa photo can also be a different size again from a passport photo, since the destination country usually sets its own visa rules rather than reusing Sri Lanka's spec. Applying for an Indian, US, or UK visa, for instance, means checking that country's own photo requirements rather than assuming the 35×45mm size on this page carries over. Our passport photo vs. visa photo guide walks through where the two commonly diverge.

If you are specifically after the Philippine spec instead, our Philippines passport photo size maker is set up for that country's blue-background requirement. For an Indian passport or visa photo, see our India passport size photo maker, and for a US application, our US passport photo size guide. For everything else, this page's tool stays matched to Sri Lanka's own 35×45mm standard.

Once you have downloaded the cropped file, photo studios and print shops near Department of Immigration and Emigration offices, along with photo counters in most shopping areas, can print it on the spot in either glossy or matte finish, usually from a phone or a USB drive. At Sri Lanka's 35×45mm size, roughly 15 to 18 photos fit on a single A4 sheet, which is why shops typically lay several out on one page rather than printing them one at a time.

If you would rather not deal with the crop yourself at all, a nearby studio can take and print the photo for you directly, usually within a few minutes for a small fee. If you already have a decent photo on hand, whether from a studio or your own phone, uploading it to the tool above and printing it yourself is the free alternative.