Photo Size
35 x 45 mm
Croatian passports (putovnica) are issued by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia—Ministarstvo unutarnjih poslova, or MUP—through local police administrations, and every application rests on one printed photograph: 35 x 45 mm, a plain white background, mouth closed, and a head filling roughly 70 to 80 percent of the frame under ICAO Doc 9303. Unlike systems that photograph you at the counter, a Croatian police administration expects you to bring a compliant photograph and captures only your fingerprints on the day. That makes the photo the one thing you cannot fix on site, and it is rejected most often for a shadowed backdrop, a faint smile, glasses glare, or a months-old image.
Passport Photo Maker outputs an exact 35 x 45 mm Croatian-ready photo, swaps in the clean white background MUP expects, and centres the head inside the biometric envelope.
In Croatia the photograph is bring-your-own: nobody re-shoots it at the police administration, so whatever you hand in is what goes on the record and onto the passport chip. That raises the stakes on three things at once—an exact 35 x 45 mm print, a genuinely plain white background, and a chin-to-crown head height inside the ICAO 70 to 80 percent band. Trimming a phone photo by eye usually slips on at least one. The maker settles all three in a single pass, using your own image.
These figures reflect the Croatian biometric passport standard published for applicants by the Ministry of the Interior and aligned with ICAO Doc 9303. The same photograph works for a putovnica submitted at a police administration inside Croatia and for consular applications handled by Croatian embassies abroad, with only minor variation in the digital upload size a given portal accepts.
| Rule | Croatian requirement | Typical failure |
|---|---|---|
| Facial expression | Neutral, mouth firmly closed, no smile, both eyes open and looking at the lens. | A faint smile that lifts the cheeks or shows teeth. |
| Head position | Face square to the camera, shoulders level, no tilt or rotation. | Head leaning to one side or chin dropped toward the chest. |
| Glasses | Remove them. If worn for medical reasons, clear lenses, thin frames, no glare. | A reflection from a lamp sitting across one lens. |
| Head covering | No headwear, except worn continuously for religious or medical reasons. | A cap, hood, or hair band left on for the photo. |
| Photograph age | Recent, a true likeness, generally not older than six months. | Reusing a photo from a previous identity-card application. |
| Print finish | Gloss photographic paper, sharp, natural colour, no shadows (no shades). | A matte or plain-paper printout from a home office printer. |
| Digital upload | JPEG, colour, 413 x 531 px at 300 DPI is a safe default for consular forms. | Uploading a phone snap of a printed photo instead of the original file. |
| Editing | No filters, no retouching, no skin smoothing, natural skin tone preserved. | Beauty mode left on in the phone camera during capture. |
Croatia joined the European Union in 2013 and became a full member of the Schengen area on 1 January 2023, the same day it adopted the euro. Since then, the biometric portrait stored on a Croatian passport chip is read at automated border gates (eGates) across the whole Schengen zone, not just at Croatian crossings. The photograph is no longer a formality glued into a booklet; it is machine-matched against your live face at the gate.
That is the real reason the Croatian standard is unforgiving about a neutral expression, an even white background, and correct head size. A small smile changes the geometry of the cheeks and mouth; a shadow behind one shoulder confuses the segmentation the gate software runs; a head that is too large or too small throws off the proportions the matcher relies on. Each of these can cause a slower manual check at the border even when the passport itself is valid.
In practice this means the humble 35 x 45 mm photograph you hand in at a policijska uprava is doing double duty: it satisfies the national issuing rules and it becomes part of a Europe-wide biometric system. Producing it to specification the first time saves both a rejected application and a frustrating border experience later.
The written rules are brief, but each one carries a practical constraint that a MUP reviewer will actually check against the photograph you submit. Here is what each line means for the image you upload to the maker or shoot at home.
The photograph is 35 mm wide and 45 mm tall, cropped so the head is centred left to right with a small margin of space above the crown. Chin to crown falls between roughly 32 and 36 mm, which puts the head at about 70 to 80 percent of the frame height. Too small and the face is hard to verify; too large and the top of the head is clipped.
Croatia specifies a plain white background, uniformly lit, with no pattern, no colour cast, and no shadow. This is a stricter wording than the vaguer "light background" some neighbouring countries use, so a cream wall or a pale grey studio backdrop can draw a comment. The maker resolves this by cutting you out and dropping in an even white field every time.
The standard is a neutral face: mouth closed, no smile, eyebrows relaxed, both eyes open and directed at the camera. Croatian guidance is explicit that the mouth is closed, which trips up people used to the relaxed "gentle smile" allowed in some other passport systems.
Croatia asks for the photo to show the applicant without headwear. The only exception is a covering worn continuously for religious or medical reasons, and even then the full face from the top of the forehead to the tip of the chin must stay visible, with no fabric shadowing the eyes. Everyday hats, hoods, and hair accessories come off.
Remove your glasses for the photograph. If a genuine medical need means you must keep them on, choose thin, fully transparent frames, tilt slightly away from any overhead light to kill glare, and make sure neither frame nor reflection crosses the eyes. Tinted and photochromic lenses are not acceptable.
Because Croatia does not run standalone passport offices, understanding how a counter session works tells you exactly what your photograph is for. Adult applications are handled at the policijska uprava for your place of residence, and the same counter handles new passports and renewals.
You attend in person with proof of identity, the fee, and your printed 35 x 45 mm photograph. The officer checks the photograph against the standard, records your fingerprints, and takes your signature for the chip. If the photograph is clearly out of specification—wrong size, a coloured background, or a visible smile—it can be refused on the spot, and without a replacement to hand the application stalls. This is the single biggest reason to prepare the photo in advance.
Croatia offers standard and accelerated issuance for a higher fee. The lane you choose changes how quickly the booklet is produced, not the photo rules. The same 35 x 45 mm, white-background, neutral-expression image is used whichever turnaround you pay for.
Once printed, the passport is collected at the police administration or, where offered, delivered by post. The document is the standard EU burgundy biometric passport, and the photograph you supplied is the facial image encoded on its chip.
Croatia issues every child their own putovnica; there is no option to add a child to a parent's passport. A child's passport is generally valid for five years, and the photograph must meet the same 35 x 45 mm, white-background, neutral-expression standard as an adult's, with a little practical latitude for the youngest applicants.
A useful detail specific to Croatia: children aged twelve and over must attend the police administration in person to sign the application and give fingerprints for the chip. Younger children still need a compliant photograph submitted with the application, but the biometric enrolment rules differ by age.
For babies and toddlers, the practical route is a home photograph against a plain white wall, or the child laid on a white sheet and photographed from directly above, with no hands, toys, or dummies in shot and the eyes open. The maker then crops to 35 x 45 mm and centres the head. For school-age children the adult rules apply in full: neutral face, mouth closed, hair clear of the eyes, and an even white background.
A Croatian passport renewal is treated as a fresh application at the police administration rather than a simple extension. You submit a new, current 35 x 45 mm photograph each time; the image from your expiring passport is not carried over, because the chip needs a portrait that matches how you look now.
Croatian passports have been biometric for years, and the second-generation biometric passport also stores fingerprints. None of that changes the photograph specification: 35 x 45 mm, plain white background, neutral expression, taken within the last six months. If your appearance has changed noticeably since the last passport—a beard grown or shaved, a very different hairstyle—a fresh photograph is essential so the new likeness is accurate.
Any output the maker generates at the correct Croatian specification is suitable for a renewal in the same way it is for a first application. Nothing about the renewal path relaxes or tightens the photo rules.
Croatian citizens living overseas apply for and renew their passports through a Croatian embassy or consulate. Here the printed 35 x 45 mm photograph carries even more weight, because consular missions rely on the photo you bring rather than any live-capture station. A compliant image built to the Croatian specification is accepted whether it comes from a studio or from our maker.
The application is normally made in person at the mission, and forms are collected there. Consular practice can vary slightly between missions, but the photograph criteria do not: it must be the same 35 x 45 mm, white-background, neutral-expression, gloss photograph used inside Croatia.
Where a mission or portal accepts a digital photo as part of an online step, the maker's digital export at 413 x 531 pixels and 300 DPI is a safe default. Always confirm any file-size ceiling on the specific portal before you upload, since some cap the JPEG well below half a megabyte.
Because the photo is not retaken at the counter, a rejection in Croatia usually means a wasted trip rather than a quick redo. The good news is that refusals cluster around a short, predictable list. Clear these before you go and the visit is straightforward.
A cream wall, a pale grey studio sheet, or a faint colour cast. Croatia specifically calls for a plain white background, so anything off-white invites a comment.
Fix: the maker replaces your backdrop with an even, clean white field that matches the Croatian standard.
A 2 x 2 inch US-style square, a 35 x 35 mm crop, or another format left over from a different document. Croatian counters take 35 x 45 mm only.
Fix: run the image through the Croatian template; the output is generated at the exact 35 x 45 mm ratio.
A relaxed grin or slightly parted lips. Croatian rules state the mouth is closed and the expression neutral, and this is one of the most common reasons a photo is refused.
Fix: reshoot with a relaxed, closed mouth, level eyebrows, and both eyes open and calm.
A close selfie clips the crown; a distant shot leaves the face too small to verify against the chip and border capture.
Fix: the biometric crop places the head inside the 32 to 36 mm chin-to-crown range every time.
Side light from a window casts a shadow under the chin or on the wall behind one shoulder. Croatian guidance asks for no shades at all.
Fix: shoot in soft, front-facing light and keep a metre of space from the wall; the maker then evens out the background.
Prescription lenses catch a bright spot from a ceiling lamp, hiding part of an eye. Croatia asks for glasses to be removed for this reason.
Fix: take the glasses off. If medically necessary, angle away from the light and check both eyes are glare-free before submitting.
Reusing an image more than six months old, or one that predates a new beard or hairstyle. Croatia wants a current likeness.
Fix: take a fresh photograph that matches your appearance now, within the last few weeks where possible.
A plain-paper printout, a matte finish, or a photo run through a phone beauty filter. Croatian guidance expects a sharp gloss print with natural, unedited colour.
Fix: switch off beauty mode before shooting, then print the maker's gloss-ready sheet at a photo lab.
Yes. A home photograph is perfectly acceptable for a Croatian passport as long as you get a few practical things right before pressing the shutter. Any recent phone easily has the resolution needed for a 35 x 45 mm print, and the maker handles the framing and the white background afterwards. What it cannot invent is good lighting, the right distance, or a neutral expression, so those are on you.
Use the standard photo mode, not portrait mode, which blurs the background the maker needs to read. Turn off any beauty filter, skin smoothing, or heavy HDR effect first, because these subtly reshape the face and invalidate a biometric photograph. A rear camera gives cleaner detail than a front selfie camera.
Soft, even, front-facing light is the goal. Face a large window in daytime with the camera between you and the window, or use two lamps at face height, one on each side, to cancel shadows. A single overhead light is the classic mistake: it drops a shadow under the chin and eyes that no crop can remove.
Have someone hold the camera about one and a half to two metres away at eye level, so your features are not distorted the way a close selfie warps the nose and forehead. Stand roughly a metre in front of a plain, light wall so any residual shadow falls behind you; the maker then replaces the wall with clean white.
Croatian reviewers expect a gloss photographic print, not a matte or plain-paper one. A photo lab, fotografska radnja, or a drogerija photo counter is the reliable choice. Export the maker's 10 x 15 cm sheet, which lays out several 35 x 45 mm prints, and the lab can print and cut it in a few minutes.
The three recurring home-photo errors are shooting too close, using a coloured or busy wall, and lighting from a single overhead source. The maker can rescue an imperfect background, but distortion from a close lens and hard shadows on the face are far harder to fix, so get the distance and light right at capture.
If you have handled a US passport before, or you are helping a Croatian-American relative, the two standards look similar but differ on nearly every measurement. Both ask you to supply the photo yourself, yet the images are not interchangeable.
| Attribute | Croatia | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 35 x 45 mm (portrait) | 2 x 2 inches (square, 51 x 51 mm) |
| Head height | 32–36 mm chin to crown | 25–35 mm chin to crown |
| Background | Plain white, evenly lit | Plain white or off-white |
| Expression | Neutral, mouth closed, no smile | Natural expression, closed-mouth smile tolerated |
| Glasses | Removed; medical exception only | Not permitted (since 2016) |
| Submission format | Printed 35 x 45 mm gloss handed in; fingerprints taken on the day | Printed 2 x 2 in for paper forms; digital JPEG for online renewal |
| Issuing authority | Ministry of the Interior (MUP) | US Department of State |
| Who provides the photo | Applicant brings the printed photo (no live capture) | Applicant supplies the photo |
The two differences that matter most are the shape and the smile. A Croatian photo is a tall 35 x 45 mm portrait; a US photo is a 2 x 2 inch square, so one can never be cropped into the other without failing. Croatia also insists on a closed, neutral mouth, whereas the US tolerates a slight closed-mouth smile. Pick the Croatian template in the maker and the output is built to the right shape and rules from the start.
From opening the tool to downloading a 35 x 45 mm Croatian-ready file, the flow is five short steps.
The specifications on this page reflect the Croatian biometric passport photograph requirements published by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia and the ICAO Doc 9303 international standard, as they are commonly applied at Croatian police administrations and Croatian consular missions. Requirements can change, and individual offices sometimes apply local guidance in addition to the national standard.
Always verify the current rules with the official Croatian Ministry of the Interior (MUP) or with the specific embassy or consulate handling your application before you submit. Passport Photo Maker helps you produce a compliant photograph; final acceptance always rests with the issuing authority.
A Croatian passport (putovnica) needs a colour photograph measuring 35 x 45 mm on a plain white background, with the mouth closed and a neutral expression. The head from chin to crown should fill roughly 70 to 80 percent of the frame, in line with ICAO Doc 9303, and the print should be a sharp gloss photograph with no shadows or colour cast.
Yes. Unlike some countries that photograph applicants at the counter, a Croatian police administration (policijska uprava) expects you to supply a compliant 35 x 45 mm photograph with the application and captures only your fingerprints and signature on the day. Because the photo is not retaken on site, it is the one element you cannot correct later, so it must meet the standard before you arrive.
The Croatian Ministry of the Interior specifies a plain white background that is evenly lit, with no shadows, patterns, or colour cast. A very light neutral tone is accepted in practice, but plain white is the safest choice, and it is the backdrop our maker applies automatically for the Croatian template.
The photograph must be a current likeness taken within the last six months. Even inside that window, a significant change of appearance such as a new beard, a very different hairstyle, or noticeable weight change means you should take a fresh photograph so the image matches how you look on the day of application.
Glasses should be removed for a Croatian passport photograph so the eyes and the surrounding area are fully visible. Tinted or dark lenses are never allowed. If glasses cannot be taken off for a genuine medical reason, the frames must be thin, the lenses clear, and there must be no glare or reflection covering any part of the eyes.
Yes. Croatia does not add children to a parent's passport; every child receives their own putovnica, generally valid for five years. Children aged twelve and over must attend the police administration in person to sign the application and give fingerprints, and the same 35 x 45 mm photo standard applies to them as to adults.
The technical photo standard is effectively the same, because the Croatian identity card (osobna iskaznica) and the putovnica both follow the biometric family of rules at 35 x 45 mm with a white background and neutral expression. They are separate applications, however, so a single compliant photograph from our maker can be used for both, but each is submitted and processed independently.
The 35 x 45 mm specification itself has not changed, but since Croatia joined the Schengen area in January 2023 the biometric portrait on the passport chip is read at automated border gates across Europe. That makes the neutral expression, even white background, and correct head size more important than ever, because the facial image must match reliably against live capture at the gate.
In Croatia the photo is the part you cannot redo at the counter, so make it right before you go. The Croatia Passport Photo Maker turns one upload into a biometric crop, a clean white background, and an exact 35 x 45 mm putovnica photo ready to print on gloss paper and hand in at your police administration.
Rules are set by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia and can change without notice. Confirm the current specification with the official authority or the specific consular mission handling your application before you submit.