I was processing passport photos in DT. The crop tool comes with a handy 45:35 aspect ratio in the menu - great! Later I also found a way of setting custom ratios, although it wasn’t very discoverable.
But face sizing/positioning took me more time than I wish it did. In the end I used a 9x7 grid with 5 subdivisions to produce a mm grid. It did the job, but I wonder if there are better ways of doing that.
Are there any ways of measuring dimensions (face height) on the image? Preferably after accounting for image dpi.
Is it possible to create custom grid patterns? An outline of a face like in the picture below would be perfect:
Please make sure to check your government’s requirements for a passport photo. In my country (Canada) the passport photo must be taken in person by a commercial photographer or studio.
In the US we can shoot and print our own photos for passports. The passport application acceptance officer (typically a local postmaster) carefully verifies the photo matches the reality. The quality is always better than a polaroid (the US gold standard), so the final passport image comes out looking extra crisp.
@wpferguson perfect, thanks! It didn’t occur to me to check the LUA scripts.
For future reference, there are indeed two scripts in the contributed folder that add passport grid guidelines:
passport guide - min/max lines ICAO standard.
passport guide German - nominal face height, position of eyes and lips. Fits in the ICAO range.
It would be good to have some adjustability, though. Some countries, despite formally following ICAO rules, list slightly different dimensions.
@elGordo sorry to hear that. Canada seems to be an exception, though. Out of curiosity, I checked passport photo guidelines of countries I would have expected to be strict and none of them had this requirement.
In Hungary, they take digital photos for IDs and passports at the government office you apply for them (of course for free; also, they take multiple ones and you can choose the one you like best). In fact, you cannot bring your own (regardless of who took it), unless one of the exceptions apply (eg children under 2).
Canada is no exception, Germany also has a similar ruling.
Since 1 May 2025, biometric photos for identification documents must be submitted exclusively in electronic form by registered photo studios, using secure electronic transmission channels to the local ID issuing authority.
Alternatively, the responsible authority may offer to take biometric photos electronically on site and integrate them directly into the application process without any media disruption.
I couldn’t find anything about it online but, then, I don’t speak German, so you may be right. I’ve seen guidelines for German visa photos - they didn’t have such requirement but maybe rules for visa applications are less strict.
I guess people are bringing this point to demonstrate DT should not ship such presets by default not to encourage people to submit self-made photos (or maybe I am reading into it too much). IMHO such feature would still be useful for majority of users/cases but perhaps it should come with a disclaimer asking users to check the official rules.
I updated all scripts in win 11. Having followed the script install instructions I added the passport_guide script. Not the one for Germany. I was not able to find “passport guide - min/max lines ICAO standard”. I can only see and use the passport ratio in the crop tool.
As the person who originally raised the point, I was simply pointing out that some countries have restrictions on the origin of a passport photo, so people should consult the rules for their country before trying to use a self-made photo. Not all countries have such rules, so no need to remove anything from dt.
)