Aadhaar Photo Specifications

The exact UIDAI specification

UIDAI's photo guidelines for Aadhaar enrolment and updates are specific. Print dimensions are 3.5 cm wide × 4.5 cm tall. At 300 DPI — the resolution most enrolment centres scan at — that's 413 × 531 pixels. The file should be a JPEG, colour, and under 100 KB. The face must occupy roughly 60–70% of the frame, vertically centred, with a small margin above the head and below the chin.

Background, lighting, and pose

• Background: plain, light-coloured (white or very light grey/blue). No patterns, no doors, no curtains, no shadows on the wall behind you.
• Lighting: even, front-lit. No harsh shadows on the face. No backlight from a window.
• Expression: neutral, mouth closed, no smile, eyes open and looking straight at the camera.
• Head and ears: both ears must be visible. No caps, no hats. Religious head coverings are permitted as long as the full face from forehead to chin is uncovered.
• Glasses: avoid if possible. If you must wear them, no tinted lenses and no glare on the lenses. Sunglasses are never accepted.
• Children: no toys, no other people, no holding the child up — only the child's face should be in the frame.

Why the rules exist

The photo isn't decorative. UIDAI runs face-matching algorithms against the stored image whenever you do face-authenticated verification, and a degraded reference photo means more authentication failures. Plain backgrounds, visible ears, neutral expression, and even lighting all exist to give the matching algorithm clean, consistent inputs. Smiling changes the geometry of the mouth and cheeks. Shadows confuse edge detection. A busy background can interfere with face-segmentation.

The most common rejection reasons

From enrolment-centre operators' experience, the photos that get bounced almost always trip one of these: background not plain (selfie taken in a room with a poster on the wall), harsh shadow on one side of the face, glare across spectacles, hair covering an ear, a faint smile, or the file simply too large because someone exported from their phone gallery without compressing. The file-size check is mechanical — >100 KB and the upload form rejects it before a human sees it.

Shooting one at home

Stand about 1.5 metres from a plain wall. Have someone shoot from chest height with a phone in portrait mode. Use daylight from a window in front of you, not behind. Wear something with a collar so the neckline doesn't blend into your skin. After shooting, crop to a 7:9 aspect ratio (that's the same as 3.5:4.5), then run it through Toolkiya Aadhaar Phototo get the dimensions and file size right in one pass. The tool processes the image in your browser — your face doesn't go to anyone's server.

What "photo update" needs

If you're updating an existing Aadhaar photo, you still have to visit an enrolment centre — UIDAI does not accept photo updates online. But going with a photo that already meets these specs printed out or on a phone speeds up the operator's job and reduces the chance of a re-shoot.