A 2x2 photo is a square photo measuring 2 × 2 inches — 51 × 51 mm — the size the US passport application uses and the print size a string of other documents borrow. The square is the easy part. What gets 2×2 photos rejected is everything inside it: a head filling the wrong fraction of the frame, eyes at the wrong height, a background that isn't the plain white-or-off-white the spec asks for. This page holds the exact spec, the digital 600×600 version of the same photo, what each store charges to print one, and how any picture of you becomes a compliant 2×2 — measured, not guessed.
Turn any picture into your 2×2 photoThe specification
Two inches by two inches is only the frame. The State Department then dictates what sits inside it — these are the same rows our checks measure against (print rules from the State Department's passport photo page, linked at the bottom; the file row is the online passport-renewal upload window — the DS-160 visa upload has its own tighter cap, below):
| Photo size | 2×2 in (51×51 mm) · 600×600 to 1200×1200 pixels, square |
|---|---|
| File size | 54 KB to 10 MB |
| Format | JPEG |
| Head height | 50–69% of the photo's height (1 to 1⅜ in / 25–35 mm) |
| Eye height | 56–69% up from the bottom of the photo |
| Background | Plain white or off-white |
| Recency | Taken within the last 6 months |
Print it and the size must come out exact — a 2×2 photo scaled down to share a 4×6 print with vacation photos is no longer a 2×2 photo. The full rules, restated in plain English with every measurement, are on the US passport photo requirements page.
Print vs digital
Yes — 600×600 pixels is this same photo in digital form, and the whole digital side of it (the DS-160 range, the DV lottery's exact size, the file cap, and the scan rule that makes the two equivalent) is on the 600x600 photo page.
The conversion
Cropping a picture square makes a square — it does not make a 2×2 photo. The spec measures the content: where your chin and crown sit, where your eyes fall, what color the background resolves to. A picture cropped to the right shape with the head at the wrong size fails exactly as hard as one the wrong shape. The converter solves the content instead of asking you to:
Already holding a photo — a store print, an old file? The free US passport photo checker measures it exactly as it is, altering nothing, and tells you which checks pass.
Printing
Any photo counter can print a 2×2 photo; what you are choosing is whether they also take it. The prices, each from the retailer's own page:
Notice what the cheap end requires: a compliant file first. Walmart's $7.64 — or your own printer and a sheet of photo paper — finishes the job only if the photo already passes. That is the work the converter does before any counter gets involved. The fine print on each store — surcharges, coupon exclusions, what happened to Costco — is in the passport photo cost guide. And the prints are the smallest line on the whole passport bill — what a US passport costs in 2026 itemizes every government fee around them.
One line no store publishes: a promise that the government accepts the photo. If a print comes back rejected, the reprint and the resubmission weeks are yours.
Beyond the passport
The 2×2 frame reaches well past the passport:
And where it does not reach: the UK and the Schengen countries use the 35×45 mm family — taller than wide, a different shape entirely, not just a different size. A 2×2 print cannot be trimmed into one without wrecking the head proportions — the passport photo size chart maps every country's frame. Those are separate flows: UK passport photo and Schengen visa photo.
The source photo
Any phone from the last decade clears the resolution bar — 600×600 pixels is a small fraction of what the camera captures. Phone photos fail on other grounds, so spend the effort there:
The wall behind you matters less than you would think when the background is being replaced anyway — and matters completely when it is not. The full walkthrough, from camera settings to common failures, is in the at-home phone photo guide.
Questions
In the United States, yes — the US passport photo is a 2 × 2 inch (51 × 51 mm) print, so the two phrases name the same object. Outside the US it usually is not: the UK and the Schengen countries use 35 × 45 mm, and other countries publish their own sizes. Match the frame to the document, not the phrase.
Not by cropping alone. The frame must be square, but the spec also fixes what is inside it — head filling 50–69% of the photo's height (1 to 1⅜ in / 25–35 mm), eyes 56–69% up from the bottom of the photo, background: Plain white or off-white. Upload a picture to the converter and all three are solved at once: background replaced, crop measured to spec, output as a 600 × 600 JPEG plus a print-ready 4×6 sheet (6 copies).
Face a window, phone at eye level a few feet away — ideally in someone else’s hands — look straight at the lens, neutral expression, head uncovered (religious coverings worn daily are the documented exception), glasses off. The camera is more than sharp enough; light and geometry are what fail. The converter then turns the result into the sized, white-background file and print sheet.
600 × 600 pixels at 300 pixels per inch — the State Department’s own scan resolution for a 2 × 2 print. Digital forms accept it directly: the DS-160 takes any square JPEG from 600 × 600 to 1200 × 1200 pixels, and the DV lottery entry takes exactly 600 × 600.
Check the document’s own instructions — counts vary by form. The clearest published case is the DV lottery: selectees must bring two identical printed 2 × 2 photos to the interview. The download here includes a print-ready 4×6 sheet (6 copies), which covers the common cases with spares left over.
See your finished photo free. Pay only when it passes.
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