Getting passport or ID photos printed used to mean a trip to a photo booth or a print shop. The machine spits out a sheet of six, you pay more than seems reasonable, and you hope the lighting was acceptable. Portimg's photo-to-PDF tool skips all of that — upload your photo, pick a size, choose how many copies, and download a print-ready PDF you can take to any printer.
Here's how to use it well, and what to watch for to get results that actually work for official documents.
Choosing the right size
The tool offers preset dimensions for the most common formats — standard passport (2"×2"), stamp size, visa photos — as well as a custom input for anything else. If you're preparing photos for a specific country's passport or visa application, check the official requirements before you start. Sizes vary: a US passport photo is 2"×2", a UK passport photo is 35mm×45mm, and Indian passport photos are 2"×2" but with specific background and framing requirements. Using the wrong dimensions will get your application rejected regardless of photo quality.
For unofficial uses — ID badges, event passes, photo forms — the custom dimensions give you full control. Enter the exact width and height, set how many copies you want per page, and the tool tiles them automatically with proper margins for clean cutting.
Getting a photo that works
The PDF output is only as good as the source image. A few things matter more than anything else:
Resolution. Use the highest resolution photo you have. Phone cameras are more than sufficient — just avoid screenshots or heavily compressed images. 300 DPI is the standard for print; if you're unsure, just use the original file from your camera roll.
Background. Official documents universally require a plain white or off-white background. If your photo was taken against a wall, in a room, or outdoors, use Portimg's background remover first to clean it up before converting to PDF. This takes about ten seconds and makes the difference between an accepted and rejected application photo.
Framing. For passport-style photos, the face should be centred with a small amount of headroom above and the chin near the bottom of the frame. Crop your photo to match this before uploading rather than relying on the tool to reframe it.
The conversion process
Once your photo is ready, the steps are straightforward. Open the tool, upload your image (JPG, PNG, or WebP all work), select your size preset or enter custom dimensions, choose the number of copies per page, and hit Convert. The PDF generates immediately and downloads to your device.
The output is laid out with consistent margins and spacing so the copies align correctly when you cut them. Print at 100% scale — don't let your printer rescale to fit the page, as this will throw off the dimensions.
Privacy
Passport photos contain your face and are often paired with official documents, so it's worth knowing: uploaded files are processed on the server and deleted immediately after conversion. Nothing is stored or retained. You don't need an account, and no data is logged against your session.
If you're working with sensitive documents more broadly — scanned passports, visa paperwork — and want to add a layer of protection to the PDFs you're creating, Portimg's password generator can help you create a strong password to lock those files before sharing them.
When this is most useful
The obvious use case is passport and visa applications, but the tool is equally handy for anything that requires a standard photo sheet — employee ID cards, school photo forms, event badges, or any situation where you need several copies of the same photo at a specific size on a single page. It's faster than arranging photos manually in Word or Canva, and the output is properly sized rather than eyeballed.
If you haven't tried it yet, the tool is here — bring your own photo and you'll have a print-ready PDF in under a minute.