Resize a photo or signature to the exact size a form asks for
Pick the rule — pixels and a KB range — frame the picture, and get a JPG measured to fit.
Free: 3 jobs per UTC day, 25 MB per file. PDF exports include a visible Made with Bindery watermark. Pro exports clean PDFs.
Prefer the full studio? Open Photo & signature resizer in the app →
Exam, recruitment, visa and job forms are strict about pictures: a photo of exactly 200 × 230 pixels between 20 and 50 KB, a signature of 140 × 60 pixels between 10 and 20 KB, a square visa photo of 600 × 600 pixels under 240 KB. A phone photo is thousands of pixels wide and several megabytes, so it gets turned away. Pick the rule from the list or type the numbers the form states, choose the photo, and frame it: drag to move, zoom with the slider, the mouse wheel or the plus and minus keys, and rotate if the camera held it sideways. What you see in the frame is exactly what the JPG will show.
Bindery then writes real JPGs at that pixel size and keeps the highest quality whose file fits under the maximum. A small picture that comes out below a form’s minimum is brought up to it with an empty comment block inside the file, which every viewer skips, so the picture is unchanged. Sizes are aimed inside both ways portals count a kilobyte, 1,000 or 1,024 bytes. For signatures, a clean-up turns grey paper white and the ink dark. The photo is framed, resized and compressed in your browser tab and is never uploaded.
How it works
- Pick the rule — exam photo, exam signature, US visa photo, 35 × 45 mm — or type the pixels and KB range the form states
- Choose the photo, then drag, zoom and rotate until the frame shows what you want
- Make the JPG and download it, sized and measured to fit
The rules to start from
| Rule | Pixels | File size |
|---|---|---|
| Exam form photo | 200 × 230 | 20–50 KB |
| Exam form signature | 140 × 60 | 10–20 KB, with the signature clean-up on |
| US visa photo (DS-160) | 600 × 600, square | At most 240 KB |
| Passport-style 35 × 45 mm | 413 × 531 (300 DPI) | No limit until you set one; the file is marked 300 DPI |
| Custom | Any size from 16 to 4000 pixels a side | Any range you type |
Exam and recruitment notifications differ — some ask for 3.5 × 4.5 cm, some for a 4:3 shape, some for 10–40 KB — so every number can be changed. Typing your own numbers switches the rule to Custom. The US visa rule follows the State Department’s digital image requirements for visa photos: square, at least 600 × 600 pixels, JPEG, 240 KB or less.
How the file size is reached
The framed picture is drawn at exactly the pixel size you set. Bindery writes a JPG at quality 95 and keeps it if it fits under the maximum. If not, it searches the quality between 10 and 95, writing a real file each time, and keeps the highest one that fits. If even quality 10 is over the maximum, the pixel size is too large for the limit, and the result says so instead of shrinking the picture behind your back — check the pixel size the form asks for.
When the best file is under the minimum — common for signatures, which are tiny and mostly white — empty comment blocks are added inside the JPG until it reaches the minimum. Every viewer and every upload check reads the picture as it was. Portals count a kilobyte as 1,000 or 1,024 bytes, so the minimum is reached as 1,024-byte kilobytes with half a kilobyte to spare, and the maximum is kept as 1,000-byte kilobytes; the file passes either way.
Framing
The frame always has the shape of the output, so nothing is stretched. It starts centred and as large as the photo allows; drag the picture to move it, zoom up to five times, and rotate by quarter turns if the camera held the phone sideways. The arrow keys nudge it and the plus and minus keys zoom, so the frame can be set without a mouse. If the framed part has fewer pixels than the output, the summary warns that it will be enlarged and may look soft — zoom out, or use a larger photo.
Signatures
A signature photographed on paper usually comes out grey, with shadows. The clean-up, on by default for the signature rule, reads the paper’s level from the brighter part of the picture, makes it white and makes the ink dark, in gray. It does not trace or redraw the signature, and it can be switched off for a signature scanned on a white background.
Resizing in the browser versus uploading
| Photo & signature resizer | Bindery | Upload-based tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where the file is processed | In your browser tab, on your device | Uploaded to the service’s servers |
| Your photo | Stays on your device | Uploaded to the service’s servers |
| File size | Measured on the real JPG, inside both ways of counting a KB | Often estimated, or counted one way only |
| What exists afterwards | The original and the new file, both on your device | A server copy until the retention window ends |
| Works offline | Yes, once the app has loaded | No |
Questions people ask
Will the form accept the file?
Bindery makes a JPG at exactly the pixel size you set and within the KB range you set, measured on the real file. It can’t know rules it isn’t told — background colour, head size, how recent the photo is — so read the form’s instructions for those. The presets are common starting points; type the numbers your form gives.
Why is my file exactly at the minimum, or a little above it?
A small picture at high quality can still be under a form’s minimum, such as 10 KB for a signature. Bindery adds an empty comment block inside the JPG until it reaches the minimum, with a little to spare so it passes whether the portal counts a KB as 1,000 or 1,024 bytes. Viewers skip the block, so the picture is exactly the same.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. Framing, resizing, clean-up and the size search all run in your browser tab; the photo never leaves your device. On the free plan, making a JPG is one of your 3 jobs a day, and images are never watermarked.
Can I make the file bigger than it is?
Yes, up to the minimum you set: the JPG is padded with empty comment blocks, and the picture does not change. Bindery does not raise the pixel size to make a file bigger — that would change what the form sees.
Does it work for PNG or WebP photos?
Yes. JPG, PNG and WebP photos can be framed; the result is always a JPG, which is what forms that set a KB range ask for.
Can it remove the background of my photo?
No. Background rules — plain white or light grey — are part of the photo you take. The signature clean-up whitens paper behind ink, which suits signatures only.