OpenPhotoId · Documents
Chinese passport photo and China visa photo, made in your browser
A Chinese passport photo is 33 × 48 mm, with the head 28–33 mm tall, on a white background. A China visa photo for the online application is a file of 354–420 × 472–560 pixels. OpenPhotoId is a free passport photo maker that makes either one on your own device, crops it to the embassy’s rules and checks the result before you download it. No sign-up, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded.
Make a Chinese passport photo Make a China visa photo
Chinese passport photo size and rules
These are the numbers the app uses. They come from the Chinese Embassy in the United States’ passport photo page (2019).
| Rule | China, passport |
|---|---|
| Print size | 33 × 48 mm · 390 × 567 px at 300 dpi |
| Background | white, colour photo |
| Head height | 28–33 mm, chin to crown · 58.3–68.8% of the photo |
| Head width | 15–22 mm (not measured by the app) |
| Margins | crown 3–5 mm from the top edge · chin at least 7 mm from the bottom edge |
| Glasses | allowed if the lenses are not tinted and glare, shadow or frames do not blur them |
| Editing | the photo must not be modified, and composite photos are not accepted (“不得对照片进行修改，不得使用合成照片”) |
| Age of the photo | a paper photo taken within the last 6 months |
Because the embassy does not accept a modified photo, take the Chinese passport photo in front of a plain white wall, and in the app choose Background, then Leave as it is. The app then only crops and scales it, and the background check measures your own wall against white. Every entry, with its official page, is on the supported documents list.
China visa photo for the online application
The China visa photo rules the app uses come from the Chinese Embassy in Morocco (2025), for visa applications made through the online system. Other Chinese embassies publish their own pages, so check the one you apply to.
| Rule | China, online visa |
|---|---|
| File | 354–420 px wide × 472–560 px high · the app makes 390 × 520 · digital only |
| File size | JPEG, typically 40–120 KB |
| Background | white or near-white, no border |
| Head height | 28–33 mm on a 48 mm print · 58–69% of the photo |
| Glasses | no thick-framed or tinted glasses |
| Age of the photo | taken within the last 6 months |
The file size is found by search, not guessed: the app looks for a JPEG quality that lands inside 40–120 KB. The China visa photo entry has the source.
How the photo is made
- Pick the Chinese passport or the China online visa, then choose a photo; on a phone, the photo picker also lets you take one.
- The app finds your face from five landmarks and measures its tilt.
- For the passport, choose “Leave as it is” under Background to keep your own white wall.
- The crop lands in the middle of the head-height, eye-line and centring bands at once. Three sliders let you move within them.
- Twelve checks run on the finished file, and the face is detected again on the output.
What each check measures is explained in what a passport photo check can measure.
Printing a Chinese passport photo
For paper, the web app and the Android app tile the 33 × 48 mm Chinese passport photo on a 4×6, 5×7, A4 or Letter sheet with cutting guides: nine on a 4×6 in sheet, ten on 5×7 in, 36 on A4 and 32 on Letter. Print at actual size, not “Fit to page”, and measure one photo before you cut: it should be 33 mm across. More on printing the sheet at actual size. The China visa photo is digital only, so there is no sheet for it.
The app also has the Chinese ID card photo in 1-inch (25 × 35 mm) and 2-inch (35 × 53 mm). There is no single official page for those two, so they follow common practice; check the form you are filling in.
Before you submit a Chinese passport photo
- Face the camera straight on, in even light. A window works, direct sun does not.
- Glasses with clear lenses are allowed for the passport; for the visa, leave thick frames and tinted lenses off.
- Keep your head and shoulders in frame, with room above your hair, in front of a plain white wall.
- A portal or an officer can still reject a photo for reasons no software can measure. Read the checklist rather than assuming a pass.
Taking the Chinese passport photo yourself? See how to take a passport photo at home, and which documents need a white background.
Free, private, and on every device
Every feature is free, with no account and no watermark. The face detector and the matting model run on your device, so the photo never leaves it, and after the first visit the app works offline. It runs in any modern browser, on desktop or phone, and there are apps for macOS, Windows and Android; the iPhone and iPad download is coming back soon.