Passport photo generator Archives

SYNOPSIS

passport_photo [--black] [--copyright] [--grey/--gray] [--help] [--ifilter program] [--inputfile fname] [--ofilter program] [--outputfile fname] [--paperheight dim] [--paperwidth dim] [--photoheight dim] [--photowidth dim] [--resolution dots/unit] [--verbose] [--version] image_file

DESCRIPTION

passport_photo takes an image file containing a single picture with suitable aspect (height to width) ratio and creates an image for a specified printer's paper size and resolution containing as many copies of the original image as will fit, with each scaled to a precise size on the paper. This permits economically creating passport and other identification photos which conform to the size requirements of those requesting them. The program can also be used to print multiple copies of other kinds of pictures on a page, for example, snaps of the family for all the in-laws and outlaws.

passport_photo is a Perl program which assembles images using components of the Netpbm image processing toolkit; you must have these utilities installed on your computer in order to use it. While these programs are usually associated with Unix (GNU/Linux, etc.) systems, passport_photo works fine on Windows systems with Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) and the requisite programs and libraries installed.

To obtain the highest quality results, start with a digital camera image or scan of a photographic print made with the highest reasonable resolution—when scanning a photo there's no point setting the resolution so high you can see film grain and paper fibres. The picture should be taken or cropped to “portrait mode” (greater height than width) with the same aspect ratio as that required for the individual photos. For example, if photos of the European standard of 45 millimetres high and 35 millimetres wide (aspect ratio 1.286) are being made, and your 5 megapixel digital camera produces images of 2592 by 1944 pixels (aspect ratio 1.333), you should take the photo in portrait mode filling the full 1944 pixel width, then crop the image with the face at the desired position to a height of 2500 pixels to match the aspect ratio of the printed photos. Nothing terrible will happen if the aspect ratios are slightly mismatched, but the image will be smaller due to the need to scale it to fit within the required size.

OPTIONS

All options may be abbreviated to their shortest unambiguous prefix.

--black

Use black borders between and around images instead of the default white. This is handy when you're using a printer which doesn't fill the entire page (“bleed”), and you wish to measure the actual print area so the individual photos will be scaled to the desired size. It's a poor idea to use this option in other circumstances, as it wastes ink.

--copyright

Display copyright information.

--grey or --gray

Convert a colour image_file to grey scale. Use this option when grey scale (a.k.a. “black and white”) photos are required or preferable, for example when applying for a passport from a third world country most of whose bearers have such photos (one place you never want to stand out is at the immigration desk), or a visa for Zeta Reticuli, where such a complexion is de rigueur.

--help

Display how to call information.

--ifilterprogram

Specify the Netpbm input filter (for example pngtopnm) used to convert the input file to PPM format. If the input file has an extension of .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .tif, .tiff, or .pxm, the input filter will be automatically “guessed” based on the file type if no --ifilter is specified. Note that you can pass command line options to the input filter by quoting the program argument and specifying them after the filter program name.

--inputfilefname

Specifies the name of the input file. This is entirely equivalent to specifying an image_file argument. In either case, a specification of “-” causes input to be read from standard input, in which case --ifilter must be specified.

--ofilterprogram

Specify the Netpbm output filter used to write the output file. The default is pnmtojpeg, and unless you really know what you're doing, you shouldn't change this as most services which print digital camera files don't understand file formats other than JPEG. Note that you can pass command line options to the output filter by quoting the program argument and specifying them after the filter program name.

--outputfilefname

Specify the name of the output file written by --ofilter. By default, output is written to standard output and may be redirected to a file or piped to another program.

--paperheightdim

The height of the image produced by the printer is set to the dimension dim, where “height” is taken to mean the longer of the dimensions of the image (hence “portrait mode”). Note that this specifies the size of the image produced by the printer, not the paper size. If the printer leaves a border around the image, you should print an image with the --black option and measure it to determine the actual printed image size. The dim argument is by default in millimetres. You may specify the dimension in other units by appending a suffix of “cm” for centimetres, “in” for inches, “pc” for picas, or “pt” for points. Dimension values may be decimal fractions, but are rounded to integral millimetres. These considerations apply to dim arguments of subsequent options. The default paper height is 150 millimetres (15 cm).

--paperwidthdim

The width of the image produced by the printer is set to dim, where “width” is the smaller of the dimensions of the image. The default paper width is 100 millimetres (10 cm).

--photoheightdim

Each individual photo will have height dim, the larger of the two image dimensions. The default photo height is 45 millimetres (4.5 cm).

--photowidthdim

Each individual photo will have width dim, the smaller of the two image dimensions. The default photo width is 35 millimetres (3.5 cm).

--resolutiondots/unit

The image will be prepared with a resolution of dots/unit, where the dimension is interpreted as a number of dots per unit of length (millimetres if no unit is given). For example, “48/mm” (the default value) results in an image with a resolution of 48 dots per millimetre, which is approximately the same as “1200/in”, 1200 dots per inch.

--verbose

Generate verbose output to indicate what's going on, including a transcript of all the Netpbm commands used to prepare the image.

--version

Display version number.

EXAMPLES

Produce a 10 by 15 centimetre sheet containing six 35 by 45 millimetre passport photos from the image myshot.jpg, writing the ready-to-print 48 dot per millimetre resolution image to JPEG file myprint.jpg:

Produce an 8 by 10 inch sheet at 1200 dots per inch resolution containing twenty 2 by 2 inch photos as required for United States visa applications.

FILES

Several intermediate temporary files are created in the current directory, which are assembled into the final image. These files are rather large (about 48 megabytes with the default settings), so make sure there's adequate space on the file system containing the current directory. If the program crashes or is killed before completing, the intermediate files won't be deleted. They all have names which can be deleted by a command such as “rm *_temp?.ppm” as long as you don't have any other files in the directory such a command would inadvertently delete.

BUGS

Creating large sheets at high resolution takes lots of memory and substantial compute time. If you run passport_photo on a system with less RAM than the uncompressed image size, forcing paging to disc, it may take almost forever to generate an image.

One could add any number of fanciful length units to dimension and resolution arguments: parsecs, angstroms, chains, nautical miles, etc. On the other hand, one should have better things to do.

Yes, I've thought about calling this program ppmpassport or somesuch and submitting it as a Netpbm component. But somebody has to draw the line somewhere against accretion of special-purpose kludges into Netpbm, and here's where I draw it. If somebody does add this, they should remove the input file filtering mechanism and require the input be piped to standard input in PPM format.

Please report bugs to  at , indicating the version numbers of passport_photo, Perl, and Netpbm installed on your system.

AUTHOR

John Walker (http://www.fourmilab.ch/)

SEE ALSO

VERSION

This is passport_photo version 1.1, released on January 19th, 2020. The current version of this program is always posted at:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/netpbm/passport_photo/

COPYRIGHT

This program is in the public domain.

Dimensions

• Size of photo
  The size must be 35 mm x 45 mm (width x height).

• Width of face
  Between 16 mm and 20 mm (excluding ears).

• Length of face
  11 years and over: between 26 mm and 30 mm (chin to crown).
  Under 11: between 19 mm and 30 mm (chin to crown).

Framing

The head must be framed as follows:

• head shown in full
• head centred.

Quality of photo

Photos must:

• be in colour
• be a true likeness
• be no more than 6 months old at the date of application
• be a natural representation
• be sharp, with sufficient contrast and detail
• be undamaged
• not be reproductions (copies)
• unaltered by computer software
• be printed on high-quality, smooth photo paper
• have a minimum resolution of 400 dpi.

Lighting

The lighting must be as follows:

• even
• not over- or underexposed
• no shadow on the face or in the background
• no reflection on the face
• no reflection caused by accessories.

Position

The position must be as follows:

• head facing forward
• eyes horizontally aligned
• head not tilted
• shoulders straight.

Background

The background must be as follows:

• light grey, light blue or white
• plain
• all one colour
• all one shade
• contrast sufficiently with the head.

Glasses

The requirements for glasses are as follows:

• eyes fully visible
• glasses fully transparent
• no distortion due to reflection from the glasses
• no shadow.

Facial appearance

The requirements for facial appearance are as follows:

• head uncovered
• face fully visible
• eyes fully visible.

Ears do not have to be visible as long as the full width of the face is shown.

Expression

The requirements for expression are as follows:

• neutral expression
• looking straight at the camera
• mouth closed.

Exception for religious reasons

If you keep your head covered because of your religion or belief, then you may keep your head covering on for your photo. The head covering must be plain, in one colour only, and must also contrast with the background.

Exception for children under the age of 6

Children under the age of 6 do not have to meet the following requirements:

• Position: ‘eyes horizontally aligned, ‘head not tilted’ and ‘shoulders straight’
• Expression: ‘neutral expression’, ‘looking straight at the camera’ and ‘mouth closed’

• If the child needs to be supported, this must not be visible on the photo. 

Exception for physical or medical reasons

You may not be able to comply with all the requirements for physical or medical reasons. If it has any doubts, the organisation issuing the travel document or identity document has the right to ask you to provide a medical certificate as proof.

What is/isn’t allowed?