I need a 50×50 mm, 600×600 pixel (digital) picture for my passport. What the hell does that mean? If I’m looking at it on my pc I can make it 50×50. But if I open it in my phone it’ll be 5×5, if I open it in a bigger monitor it’ll be 100×100. How do I know what display they’ll be looking at it on?
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The image file itself has its own dimensions, which are different from the size of your screen.
The pixels are the important part for a digital image. 600×600 is 600 pixels wide, and 600 pixels tall. The 50x50mm only becomes important when you’re printing the image.
You can check the dimensions of your image:
If you’re on PC, you can right-click the image and view its Properties. It should tell you the image’s dimensions in the Details tab.
If you’re on mobile, it depends. Usually there’s a menu button that looks like three dots. There should be a Details option in there which will tell you the dimensions.
If you only want to use a small portion of the image *(just your head for instance)*, you can crop it in an image editor.
If your image is too small or too large or is the wrong shape, you can use an image editor to resize it or crop it to what you need.
*This is the end of the ELI5 part of my comment. After this point you’ll find more detail on how to actually make these edits.*
Most phones come with an image editor built-in. There’s usually a pencil icon that’ll take you there. I can’t vouch for the features it has; all phones are different. If yours can’t do it and you need to edit the image on your phone, you can find more image editors on your phone’s app store.
If you’re on Windows and don’t have an editor, I personally recommend something like [PaintDotNet](https://www.getpaint.net/download.html#download); it’s free, and it’ll get the job done well. There are loads of alternatives too. These instructions are for PaintDotNet.
If you have a big image of more than just your face, and you only want a smaller portion of it, you can use the Rectangle Select tool. After you select the tool, across the top of the screen, there should be a bar with a bunch of tool options in it. You can change from Normal mode to Aspect Ratio mode, set Aspect Ratio to 1 by 1, and it will give you a perfect square when you drag a rectangle over the image. After you’re happy with the square, you can use Image -> Crop to make it the new image.
If your image is already just your face, but it isn’t square, you can use Image -> Canvas Size to cut off the edges of the image. Use the little squares to set the anchor point to the center. Turn off “preserve aspect ratio”. Find the larger value between width and height, and lower it to the same value as the other.
If your image is too small, you can use Image -> Resize to make sure that the width and height are both at least 600. Turn on “preserve aspect ratio”. Find the smaller value between width and height, if they’re not the same. Raise that value to 600.
If your image is way too big, you can use the same options to make it smaller, as long as it’s still at least 600×600.
*(I say “at least 600” a lot here; if they want an image that is exactly 600×600, you’ll want to be sure you’ve done exactly 600.)*
When you’re done with the image, you can use File -> Save As to save it as a new copy and leave the original intact.
Unless they need a specific format for your passport, I recommend saving as a JPEG or JPG file; the file will take up less space on your hard drive, and will be quicker to send or transfer around.
If you care about maximum quality, use can save as PNG instead if they allow it. The file will take up more space on your hard drive and may be slower to send or transfer, but the original quality of the image will be preserved.
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