Why the file keeps getting rejected
Application portals check three things before a human ever sees your upload: the pixel size, the file type and the weight in kilobytes. A photo straight off a phone fails all three — it is thousands of pixels wide, often HEIC rather than JPG, and several megabytes heavy. A signature photographed on a desk fails a fourth test that is checked later by a person: it is grey, shadowed and tiny in the middle of a sheet of paper. This page fixes each of those in the order they matter, and shows you the numbers before you save rather than after the portal says no.
What each control does to the pixels
- Form. Sets the pixel box and the kilobyte range for each picture. The notice it came from is named and linked under the list with the date it was checked; where a notice gives no pixel size, the sizes shown are ours and the page says so.
- Photo fit. “Fill the box” trims evenly from both sides until the photo has the box’s shape, then scales it — nothing is stretched, and the check list says how many pixels were trimmed. “Fit inside” keeps the whole photo and puts white beside it.
- Signature clean-up. Measures the paper (a bright point in the picture) and the ink (a dark one), stretches every pixel between them so the paper turns white, crops to the rows and columns that carry ink with a margin kept round every stroke, and can turn blue ink black.
- File size. The encoder starts at full JPEG quality and searches down for the largest file inside the range. The pixel size stays exactly as the form asks unless you tick “allow fewer pixels”, because a portal that states a pixel size refuses a smaller one.
A worked example
A 3024 × 4032 phone photo and a 1600 × 1200 photo of a signature, with the IBPS-pattern bank preset. The photo box is 200 × 230, so “fill” trims 554 pixels from the photo’s height — 277 off the top and 277 off the bottom — and scales the remaining 3024 × 3478 down in halves to 200 × 230. The signature is levelled, cropped to its ink, and fitted inside 140 × 60. As two separate files, each is saved at the highest JPEG quality that keeps it inside its own range — 20–50 KB for the photo, 10–20 KB for the signature. Combined, photo above, the file is 200 × 316 pixels (the 140 × 60 signature box scaled to the photo’s width becomes 200 × 86) and is held to the photo’s 20–50 KB range. Every one of those numbers is in the check list before the download button does anything.
One file or two
Most notices ask for the photograph and the signature as separate uploads, each with its own size, and the “two separate files” output makes exactly that from the same slots — so there is no reason to come back for the second file. The combined file is for the counters and forms that ask for a single picture holding both. We have not found an official notice that asks for one, so the combined size is derived rather than invented: it keeps the photo’s box, scales the signature to match, and uses the photo’s kilobyte range. If your form names a combined size, enter it under Custom.
The longer explanation — why the signature needs a margin, why repeated resizing makes strokes uneven, and what JPEG does to dark ink on white — is in the guide on putting a photo and signature in one image.
Privacy, specifically
A photo and a signature together are an identity document in all but name, which is the strongest reason to make this file somewhere that never receives it. Both pictures are read and drawn in this tab; the saved JPG is re-encoded from the canvas, so camera details and location from your originals are not carried into it. Nothing is stored once you close the tab.
Presets are copied from published notices and dated; they are not instructions from any authority, and notices change between cycles. Check the current notice for your form before you upload. One preset comes from a secondary summary and is labelled “confirm on the official portal”. The thumb impression and the handwritten declaration some notices also ask for are not made here.
Snags people hit with photo and signature files
The form says 20–50 KB and my photo comes out at 14 KB. What now?
A small, plain photograph at 200 × 230 pixels can stay under 20 KB even at full JPEG quality. This page will not pad the file with filler bytes to fake the weight; it tells you the real size instead. If your notice allows a larger pixel size, choose Custom and enter it — more pixels carry more weight. If it fixes the pixel size, a photograph with more detail in it, or a slightly closer crop, usually clears the floor.
Should the photo and signature be one file or two?
Read your notice. Most Indian recruitment and exam portals ask for two separate uploads, each with its own pixel size and kilobyte range, and this page makes both from the same two slots. Some offline counters and a few forms want a single picture holding both; for that, choose one combined file and, if the form names a size, enter it under Custom.
My signature photo is grey and shadowed. Will it be accepted?
Portals reject signatures they cannot read, and a phone photo of white paper usually comes out grey. The clean-up measures the paper and the ink and stretches the picture between them, so the paper becomes white and the strokes get darker, then crops to the ink with a margin. It is plain arithmetic, not a model, so light strokes survive — but look at the preview before you save.
Is 50 KB counted as 50,000 bytes or 51,200?
Portals differ and few say. The file here is aimed under the smaller reading of the maximum (50,000 bytes for 50 KB) and over the larger reading of the minimum (20,480 bytes for 20 KB), so it passes whichever way the portal counts. The check list shows the exact byte count.
Which preset should I pick for my exam?
The one whose notice matches yours, and only after checking that the numbers are still the same — notices change between cycles. Each preset names its source, links to it and says when we last checked it; one comes from a secondary summary and says so. If your form is not listed, Custom takes any pixel size and kilobyte range.