UPSC Photo and Signature Specs: Weight Bands and Pixel Widths (Free)
UPSC is unusual among Indian portals: it caps signature width in pixels rather than centimetres, and its photo weight band is wide enough that people assume anything passes. Both assumptions cost rejections every cycle.
Here are the working norms, why the pixel-width signature rule exists, and the sequence that produces both files without guesswork.
Photo norms
JPEG, weight between 20 and 200 KB, plain light background, face filling most of the frame without cropping the chin or forehead. The wide band exists because the portal re-encodes on upload; sitting near the middle survives that second pass.
Resolution is not published as pixels because the portal derives it from the physical 3.5 x 4.5 cm framing at print quality.
Signature norms
Width between 350 and 500 pixels, the tool targets 420 x 140, weight between 20 and 100 KB. Pixel width matters because the signature renders inline beside your details; a 2000 px scan blurs when scaled down.
- Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen, photograph in even light, crop tight to the strokes.
Thin strokes vanish when scaled; a firmer pen survives the downscale.
Workflow that produces both files
- Open UPSC Photo Resize and add the photo; the 20-200 KB band is enforced live.
- Switch to the signature tab; the 420 x 140 preset and 20-100 KB window apply.
- Check both weight readouts before downloading.
- Keep the pair together; the form asks for them in one sitting.
Why mid-band beats edge-band
Upload pipelines recompress; a file at 195 KB can cross 200 KB after their pass, and a 21 KB file can fall under 20. Mid-band files stay inside after re-encoding.
The same logic applies to signatures: target 40-70 KB rather than the extremes.
Try it free: UPSC Photo Resize | runs entirely in your browser, no uploads and no signup.