SSC photo band · passport-style forms
Compress an image to 50 KB.
50 KB is the ceiling of the SSC photo range (20–50 KB) and the classic passport-style form cap — enough for a clean 200 × 230 JPG with quality to spare.
- 100% client-side
- Nothing is uploaded
- No account
- Canvas / WebAssembly on your device
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The 20–50 KB band, and why 50 is the sweet spot
SSC accepts anything between 20 KB and 50 KB. Re-compressing to 25 KB “for safety” throws away quality you were explicitly allowed to keep. Set Maximum 50 and Minimum 20: the quality search then stops at the best-looking file inside the band.
What 50 KB buys you
| Target | Result at ≤ 50 KB |
|---|---|
| SSC photo, 200 × 230 px | Very high quality — the band's own ceiling |
| 3.5 × 4.5 cm at 150 DPI | Sharp for screen verification |
| 413 × 531 px (passport at 300 DPI) | Good; crop tight first |
| Wide landscape photo | Soft — crop to the subject before encoding |
Expert trap: the range check runs both ways
Portals that publish a band reject files under the floor as readily as over the ceiling. A 14 KB photo fails SSC just like a 60 KB one. The Minimum KB field exists for exactly this; the 20 KB page covers the floor side of the same band, including CHSL's printed name-and-date rule.
Frequently asked questions
Is 50 KB the maximum for SSC photos?
Yes — SSC CGL, CHSL and GD accept 20–50 KB, JPG only, plain white background; CHSL additionally prints the candidate name and photo date at the bottom.
Should I aim for exactly 50 KB?
Aim under the ceiling, not at it. The quality search stops at the first setting that fits, so most outputs land below 50 KB. If your portal enforces the 20 KB floor too, set Minimum KB to 20.
Does 50 KB work for passport-style scans?
For photo-sized crops, yes. Full A4 document scans need far more budget — use the PDF pages (100–300 KB) instead.
What are the UPSC and BPSC signature limits?
Signatures vary by notification: commonly ≤ 30 KB (UPSC family, 3.5 × 1.5 cm) and ≤ 50 KB for some state PSCs such as UPPSC and BPSC. Photo fields in the same forms usually sit at 20–50 KB.
Should I upload WebP at 50 KB instead of JPG?
Only if the portal explicitly accepts WebP. Most Indian form validators check for JPEG MIME, so this page defaults to JPEG output.