PAN card photo

Resize a photograph for an online PAN application through Protean (NSDL) or UTIITSL.

Prepare your file

213 × 213 pxunder 30 KB

JPEG, PNG, WebP or BMP. You can also drag a file here.

The file stays in this tab. It is not uploaded.

Sources disagree on this specification

The two authorised PAN portals publish different figures, and widely-copied third-party numbers disagree with both. Commonly cited: UTIITSL 213 x 213 pixels under 30 KB; Protean (NSDL) around 197 x 276 pixels under 50 KB. This tool defaults to the 213 x 213 / 30 KB figure. Read the instruction panel on the portal you are actually applying through, then use the custom size tool if it asks for something else.

Last reviewed .

What this form requires

Official rules and our own recommendations are labelled separately, so you can tell which is which.

  • Official requirementJPEG format. PNG, HEIC, WebP and PDF are not accepted by either portal.
  • Official requirementUTIITSL commonly specifies a square 213 x 213 pixel photograph.
  • Official requirementProtean (NSDL) publishes different dimensions and a different file size cap.
  • Official requirementColour photograph, plain light background, face clearly visible.
  • DocuFix recommendationDPI metadata does not survive a browser canvas export. Portals validate pixel dimensions and file size, not the DPI tag.

What causes rejections

  • Using the figures for the other portal. Protean and UTIITSL are not interchangeable.
  • Uploading an iPhone HEIC file renamed to .jpg.
  • Trusting a third-party resizer that hardcodes one portal’s numbers without saying which.

What this tool can and cannot check

Checked automatically

  • Exact pixel dimensions
  • File size under 30 KB
  • JPEG output in the sRGB colour space
  • That the file is a real image, not a renamed HEIC or PDF

Judged by a person or the portal

  • Whether your expression is neutral
  • Whether hair or a head covering obscures your face
  • Whether the photo is recent enough
  • Head height, which the crop guide targets but does not measure
  • Whether the photograph is genuinely of you

Passing every automated check here does not mean your application will be accepted. It means the file will not fail for a technical reason.

How your image is handled

Your file is read into this page, decoded, drawn onto a canvas at the target size and re-encoded. Every step runs on your device. No network request carries the image, so nothing is stored on our side and nothing can be recovered from us later.

Re-encoding through a canvas also converts the file to the sRGB colour space and strips the original EXIF metadata, including any location tag your camera wrote into it.

What this does and does not protect against

Questions

What is the correct PAN photo size?
It depends on which portal you are applying through, and the two publish different figures. Open the upload screen, read the size it states, and match that. Where the screen says 213 x 213 under 30 KB, this tool matches it directly.
Does DPI matter?
Not for an online upload. The portal checks pixel dimensions and file size. DPI only affects how large an image prints on paper.

Sources

  1. [1]Protean eGov Technologies (NSDL) — PAN application — online application instructions
  2. [2]UTIITSL — PAN card application portal

Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will check it against the source.