Compress Photo for UPSC Application | MiniPx — Free, Fast & Private
UPSC publishes its upload rules in its One Time Registration FAQs, on the application portal at upsconline.gov.in. Three things matter:
- Photograph — JPG, 20 KB to 300 KB, 550–1000 px, with three quarters of the face visible.
- Signature — JPG, 20 KB to 300 KB, 350–500 pixels.
- Live photograph — a webcam or mobile capture is now mandatory, and UPSC matches it against the photo you uploaded. A mismatch stops the application there.
The triple signature catches people out. UPSC does not want one signature. You sign your name three times, one below the other, on plain white paper in black ink, with a clear gap between each. All three are scanned into a single image. An application carrying a single signature does not meet the instruction, no matter how clean the scan is.
For the photograph: upload it, choose JPEG with the Smart preset and 640px max width, which keeps a portrait photo inside UPSC's 550-1000 px. That lands most phone photos between 80–180 KB, inside the band. UPSC also requires that three quarters of your face is visible, head centred, eyes open and not covered by hair.
For the triple signature: scan all three signatures as one image, then compress with JPEG and the Smart preset at 500px max width so the result stays inside the 350–500 pixel window. Watch the floor as well as the ceiling here — the minimum is 20 KB, and a hard-compressed signature scan can fall under it. If it does, switch to the Gentle preset.
MiniPx shows the exact output size before you download, so you can check both bounds against the portal’s limits rather than guessing. If a photo comes out over 300 KB, drop the width to 640px; if it lands under 20 KB, use Gentle.
If an upload has already been refused, check the eight usual causes before compressing again. If you are applying to more than one exam this cycle, do not reuse the same files: the specifications genuinely differ. CTET allows only 10–100 KB for the photograph and 3–30 KB for a single signature, and GATE permits up to 600 KB but enforces a pixel ceiling of 530 × 690 that a UPSC-sized photo can exceed.
Your identity documents stay private. MiniPx processes everything in your browser — your photograph and signature are never uploaded to any server.