Compress photo for CUET UG 2026

CUET (UG) 2026 upload size: the official spec

The CUET (UG) 2026 — Information Bulletin (NTA) (printed p. 9) sets two bands, both for JPG/JPEG files. The photograph line reads “Size of the photograph should be between 10 kb to 200 kb and in JPG/JPEG format”; the signature line reads “Signature file should be JPG/JPEG format (clearly legible) between 10 kb to 50 kb.” There are no pixel dimensions in either instruction, which leaves the file size and the content of the image as the things that decide whether an upload goes through.

Why the signature is the file to watch

Most candidates worry about the photograph and treat the signature as an afterthought. On CUET that is backwards. The photograph has a wide band; the signature’s band is 10–50 KB, narrower at the top than the signature limit of the other entrance exams run by the same agency. A signature photographed on a modern phone is often several times that ceiling straight out of the camera, because the phone saves the whole sheet of paper at full resolution.

The fix is the order you do things in, not a lower quality setting:

1. Crop first. Cut the image down to the signature and a thin margin. Most of the bytes in a signature photo are blank paper, desk edge and shadow.
2. Then reduce the dimensions. A signature does not need thousands of pixels across to be legible. Scaling it down removes far more bytes than squeezing JPEG quality ever will, and it keeps the strokes sharp.
3. Then compress. With the first two steps done, the tool above will bring the file inside the band at a quality that still reads cleanly.

The band also has a floor. Over-cropping a thin signature and compressing it hard can produce a file under the minimum, which is refused just as an oversized one is. The tool checks the result against both ends of 10–50 KB and says which one it missed, if either.

Getting a clean signature image

Use plain white paper and a dark pen that does not skip. Sign at your normal size — not larger to make it “clearer”, which only spreads the strokes over more pixels. Photograph the sheet flat in daylight with the phone held parallel to the page, then crop it so the signature fills most of the frame. Grey paper or a shadow across the page makes the compressor spend bytes on texture that carries no information.

The photograph

CUET’s photograph rules are the same family as JEE (Main): the picture must be in colour, with 80% of the face visible, ears included, no mask, and a white background. A candidate who has already prepared a photo for JEE (Main) can usually reuse it here, because both bulletins state the photograph the same way.

Because the photograph band is generous, it is rarely the size that causes trouble. It is a grey or patterned background, hair over the ears, or a photo that has been converted to black and white by a scanning app. If you need a white background, the passport photo maker will provide one before you size the result here.

The live photograph

CUET (UG) also asks for an image taken at the time of applying: a live photograph is also captured during the application. The uploaded JPG is still required. Keep your appearance consistent between the two — the same glasses, or none, and no cap.

When the photograph comes out too small

The photograph rarely runs into its ceiling, but it can run into its floor. A small source — a crop taken from a group photo, or an image saved from a messaging app that had already shrunk it — can produce a JPEG under the minimum of 10–200 KB even at high quality, simply because there are not enough pixels to fill the file. The fix is a better source, not a trick: take a fresh photo with the main camera rather than the front one, at a closer distance, and start from the original file instead of a forwarded copy. Enlarging a tiny image to cross the floor adds bytes but no detail, and the result looks soft wherever it is printed.

Common CUET upload problems

Signature over the ceiling because the phone photo was compressed without being cropped or scaled down.

Signature under the floor after an online “reduce to the smallest size” tool was run on it.

A photo in the wrong format: HEIC from an iPhone or PNG from a screenshot. The tool always writes JPEG.

A photo that is not in colour, or one where the ears are hidden.

Other exams with their own pages are listed in the government exam photo guide.

The tool runs in your browser and the image is not uploaded to MiniPx.